Some Filipinos Up in Arms Over Playboy? They Should Try Playhouse!

The usual “guardians of public morals” were on TV tonight slamming (no pun intended) Playboy for launching a Philippine edition this week. Although the editor of Playboy had reiterated that the local edition of that American cultural icon — yes, Playboy is a cultural icon, whether we like it or not — is going to be much tamer, Manoling Morato, the former movie censor who claims moral and ethical ascendancy over all of us, was not convinced.

But what riles Morato and the others could just be the idea of Playboy having arrived here. His criticism of Playboy, we suspect, was just a knee-jerk reaction because of all the things that Playboy represents — sex, lots of sex, decadence, lots of sex (oh yes, the interviews and fiction were really good) — and not the content of the actual publication itself that came out in the market Wednesday.

We haven’t bought a copy yet but based on what we saw on the Internet and on TV, it’s way tamer than Playboy in the US.

In fact, it’s way, way tamer than the other “mature” publications now circulating locally, such as Playhouse, published by that old and venerable komiks giant Atlas Publishing.

See for yourself — and wonder why Manoling Morato, whose office on Morato Avenue in Quezon City is only about two minutes away by car from the Atlas printing press on Roces Avenue, has not held a picket slamming (again, no pun intended) Atlas for its raunchy rag. (pinoypress.net)