‘Repeal law vs offending religious feelings’

MANILA, Philippines — An independent opposition lawmaker has filed a bill at the House of Representatives that aims to repeal an “archaic” provision in the country’s Revised Penal Code (RPC) that punishes persons who have offended any denomination or religious sect. 

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said House Bill 5170 seeks to annul Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code, which the Supreme Court invoked in upholding the conviction of the late Carlos Celdran, who disrupted a congress of bishops at Manila Cathedral by likening them to the antihero in a Rizal novel.  

The veteran Bicolano lawmaker said he introduced the measure in “memory of Celdran, a fellow Reproductive Health law advocate.” 

Lagman, a lawyer by profession, stressed that technically Celdran “died a free man” because the high tribunal “failed to resolve with finality his latest pending motion for reconsideration of his improvident conviction of wounding religious feelings.” 

In a statement, he said “it is now incumbent on Congress to accord justice and redress to Celdran by repealing Article 133 which is an odious remnant of the Dark Ages and offensive to the freedom of expression.” 

“It was a clear political statement that unlike Padre Damaso, the Catholic hierarchy must not interfere in secular affairs like preventing the passage of the Reproductive Health bill even as Protestant bishops didn’t oppose the measure,” Lagman maintained. 

He also recalled that at the height of the RH bill debates (now Republic Act 10354) then under the administration of former president Benigno Aquino III, Celdran dressed in September 2010 as national hero Jose Rizal and walked toward Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, Manila. 

Celdran went directly to the main altar where an ecumenical service was ongoing on the joint distribution of bibles by Catholic as well as Protestant leaders, where he raised a placard bearing the word “Damaso,” referring to the villain friar from Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere.  

This earned an indictment for Celdran and, later, a conviction by the Manila court.