Philippine President's Advisor Says Da Vinci Code Should be Banned

NEWS
Official in Manila wants Da Vinci movie banned

MANILA, MAY 10: The Philippine government should ban the controversial movie “The Da Vinci Code,” a senior official in the mainly Catholic country said on Wednesday, describing the religious thriller as blasphemous.

The film, based on the best-selling fiction novel of the same title, is due to open in Manila’s cinemas next week.


“I think we should do everything not to allow it to be shown,” said Eduardo Ermita, executive secretary to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, expressing his personal opinion as a “devout Catholic.”

He told journalists the state’s censors should take a closer look at its guidelines before giving the green light to the film whose central premise is that Jesus Christ sired a child by Mary Magdalene.

More than 80% of the Philippines’ 85 million population are Roman Catholic. Along with Malta, the Philippines is one of only two countries in the world without a divorce law and frowns on the promotion of artificial contraception.

“In the name of many like you who love and revere the Son of God made Man, I strongly appeal to you that the showing of the film ‘Da Vinci Code’ be banned throughout our land,” said a Roman Catholic archbishop in a letter to the chief censor this week.

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