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By Kim Arveen Patria | Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom â€" 4 hours ago



NPPA - Popular tourist guide and culture activist Carlos Celdran, with a black tape on his mouth, joins private citizens and different militant groups in a protest rally against the new Anti-Cybercrime Law by the Aquino government, at the Supreme Court in Manila, on 02 October 2012. The Supreme Court is set to tackle during its en banc session today several petitions questioning the constitutionality of certain provisions of Republic Act (RA) 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. Protesters called the law as a threat to Filipinos' right to freedom of expression. (Jhun Dantes Jr/NPPA Images)

Remember the guy who donned a topcoat and hat a la Jose Rizal and held a placard that said "Damaso" during a Manila Cathedral mass?

More than two years after his protest against an allegedly meddlesome Catholic church, a criminal court found popular activist Carlos Celdran guilty of "offending religious feelings."

The Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 4 sentenced Celdran to suffer imprisonment for an indeterminate period of two months and 21 days as minimum to one year, one month and 11 days.

"[P]remises considered, accused Carlos Celdran y Pamintuan is found 'guilty' beyond reasonable doubt for the crime of offending religious feelings under Article 133 of the Revised Renal Code," the court decision dated Dec. 14 said.

The said provision in the laws lists penalties for "anyone who, in a place devoted to religious worship or during the celebration of any religious ceremony shall perform acts notoriously offensive to the feelings of the faithful."

Celdran, a reproductive health (RH) advocate and tourist guide interrupted a Manila Cathedral mass on Sept. 30, 2010, dressed as Jose Rizal and carrying a placard that says "Damaso."

The protest is a reference to "Padre Damaso", the antagonist priest in Rizal's Noli Me Tangere.

He was protesting Philippine Church leaders' alleged meddling on government, particularly over the reproductive health bill.

"All told, the positive declaration of the witnesses for the prosecution and the circumstances surrounding the incident are sufficient to satisfy the quantum of evidence needed for a criminal conviction," the court said.

International watchdog Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, expressed alarm over the court ruling, calling for its reversal.

"This is a setback for free speech in the Philippines, which prides itself on being a democracy," HRW said in a statement.

"Nobody should be jailed for voicing out an opinion or position, especially on a subject that concerns the lives of millions of Filipino women and mothers," it added.

he RH law, which is aimed at expanding maternal health programs specifically for the poor, has been signed by President Benigno Aquino III late last year.

Catholic Church leaders who have consistently opposed the measure have meanwhile vowed to continue the fight through other venues.

HRW meanwhile urged the government to ensure that "archaic provisions" in laws will not be used to target RH supporters.

"This case shows the potential for misuse and malicious prosecution and hence the need for urgent reform to this provision of the code," the watchdog said.

The law may be harsh but it is the law.

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while human rights watch may issue statements within its parameters, it isn't fair for it to call our laws archaic.  did it ever complain that punishment by death in the u.s. is archaic? 

there's nothing archaic about dramatically interrupting a religious service.  one might as well say that laws on libel and defamation are archaic in keeping with freedom of expression. 

there are other less insulting ways to express one's own stand.  celdran deserves jail time for his exhibitionistic 15 minutes of fame. 

Hmm, would some Celdran rhetoric be forthcoming?

protesting in a wrong way is self-glorification.

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