‘Smut papers will no longer see print’

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) are confident that four alleged smut newspapers will no longer see print following a raid on their publishing house in Quezon City Thursday night.

DOJ and NBI operatives, armed with a search warrant issed by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, forcibly entered the building housing the printing press and publication office of Sunny Publishing House – which publishes the tabloids Toro, Bosero, Toro 2nayt and Bosero 2nayt – located at 3 Boston Street, Cubao at about 8:30 p.m..

The raid resulted in the seizure of printing equipments and personal computers used in the printing of the tabloids, according to DOJ Undersecretary Jose Calida, who led the raiding team.

"We are confident that we have finally put a stop to the publishing of these tabloids as we have disabled their printing equipment," Calida said.

Neither Sunny Mallari, the company’s publisher, nor Vilma Manzo, the editor-in-chief, were present when the raid was conducted.

Charges of indecent publication or the violation of Art. 201 of the Revised Penal Code are now being readied against Mallari, Manzo, and the other top officials of the publishing house in the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office. They will also be charged with violating the Intellectual Property Rights Code after operatives found that the personal computers contained pirated software and photos lifted from movies.

Calida said that at present, they have no evidence to show that the publishing house is owned by Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay, as reported earlier by a broadsheet.