Position Paper in Banning Porn Sites in

the Philippines

Therenz Gerald S. Olazo

Grade 12- Del Mundo

Submitted to:

Ms. Eizel Medina

EAPP Subject teacher

 Position Paper for Banning Porn sites in the Philippines

Is pornography that bad? Pornography as defined by Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge

(also called as obscenity in legal terms) is any material (pornographic materials): pictures, films,

printed materials or devices dealing with sexual poses or acts considered indecent by the public. It

is intended to arouse sexual desire (Webster’s Universal Dictionary 221). The term applies to the

depiction of the act rather than the act itself, and does not include sex shows and strip tease.

Pornography is debated to be a form of artistic expression of one’s body. Others from the religious

sect. (e.g. Catholicism) say that pornography is the degradation of one’s body, yet there are still

who patronize pornography. (Quiban, et. Al., 2013)

Pornography in the Philippines started in 1946, in the form of magazines imported from

the U.S, also in this decade, pornography became accessible to interested affluent men and women

who are in a mature relationship. According to a news report by the American Chronicle (2009),

the underground Philippine porn industry earned about $1 billion in 2006, ranking eight place

around the world with Canada and Taiwan.

In terms of the state of the country right now, we are at the brink of increased poverty and

job lost by a lot. Looking back, that $1 billion dollars earned by the Porn industry in the Philippines

could have helped so many families in the country. It may be viewed immoral, but to be fair, this

kind of options or opportunities to make money off due to lack of source of income, should be

viewed not biased towards religion but are dependent on world orders and systems, in the

Philippines, this kind of job has a coined term which is “kapit patalim”, doing a job for the sake

of your family, or saving them off from poverty.

 Duterte Banning Porn sites in the Philippines

Internet users in the Philippines are now being forced by the government. The

South East Asian country is the latest to ban the world’s biggest legal porn websites such as

Pornhub and Xvideos have been blocked by the government as of Saturday of 14th of January 2017.

Those attempting to visit these websites from within the Philippines without a VPN or proxy end

up seeing this message, “This website has been ordered blocked under authority of the Philippine

government pursuant to Republic Act 9775 or the anti-child pornography law”, while “think of

the children” might be the rallying call behind the Philippines’ porn ban. The truth is tha this is

plain old censorship. Martin Andanar, Duterts’s Presidential Communications Secreatary clarified

to The inquirer: “What’s important here is that the president does not like these pornographic

videos in the internet.”

The pros of pornos

A. Pornography profits

1. People or actors/staffs who participates in making adult films makes money

from it. As stated earlier, there’s an increase in poverty in our country, people

who suffers from it will do and take jobs just to survive from it, others will do

something moral even though the benefits they get are small, and for the people

who are practical, will probably choose a job that are too risky, like robbing.

Being a pornographic actor/actress is somehow a bit of both, moral if view

based on how the world order and system work, and immoral if view biased on

the culture or specifically the religion in this country (e.g. Catholicism).

a. Back in 2006 pornography are illegal, the sex industry thrives in black

market, a net profit of 1 billion dollars was made. According to Eduardo

 “Edu” Manzano, retired chief of OBM (Optical Media Board) said in 2008,

that a porn film producer offered $1,000 for every sex scene featuring adult

Filipinos. A porn film costs $10,000 to produce.

b. Ropelato associate of Top Ten reviews website, conducted extensive

research on pornography, reported, “Every second, $3,075.64 is being spent

on pornography; 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography; 372

Internet users are searching sex-related terms in search engines; and every

39 minutes, a new pornographic video is being created in the United States,”

2. If only porn was legal in our country the government and our society could have

made huge profits like China, wherein China led in the porn profit race in 2006,

with $27.40 billion in total revenues. And from the profits we would have

gained, the gov’t could use it to help the people who are in dire need, like the

people experiencing poverty.

a. There are types of people who are willing to undergo Pornography:

i. Them who are in dire need of source of income,

ii. Them who wants to express themselves in the form of nudity

iii. And them who enjoys doing it, and making profit from it.

b. There are genres of porn as well:

i. Alternative pornography; tends to involve subcultures as goth and

punks.

ii. Amateur Pornography; features models performing for whom is

their first or only paid modeling work, and also has been called the

most profitable and long-lasting genre.

 iii. Ethnic Pornography; focuses on performance of specific ethnic

groups.

iv. Fetish Pornography; involves the fetish or an object of interest in a

relationship.

v. Group Sex Pornography; it is either ranging from threesome that

involves three people, foursome, involves four, and orgies, or party

sex.

vi. Sexual orientation-based Pornography; includes straight porn or gay

porn. Straight porn is the traditional type of porn, a man and woman

having an intercourse, while gay porn involve either two men, or

two women.

vii. Reality Pornography; is where staged scenes. Usually shot in cinema

verite fashion, set up and precede sexual encounters.

B. Pornography isn’t that Dirty

1. Pornographic actors, or porn stars aren’t that exposed to STD’s (Sexually

Transmitted Diseases). The actors and actresses are required to undergo

periodic testing of sexually transmitted diseases. As a result, these actors and

actresses have a lower percentage of diseases then the regular population. After

the awareness of the IDS crisis grew in the 1980’s, condom used in porn did

see an uptick.

2. After partaking in Pornographic pieces, after you change career, even though

many years have passed, they’d never forget that you partake on one, the society
 will never see you the same person before. This has to change, being a

pornographic actor is just like other profession or career, that only involves sex

and nudity as a part of a job. Sex is something natural, in this line of work,

they’re just having sex, but it’s recorded. They partake in this with their own

will, it doesn’t make them less of a person, they’re just doing their job. To

entertain, and demonstrate sexual intercourse for viewers who are afraid to do

it, or for viewers that can’t do it anymore. Pornography deals with sexual

arousal among people, it doesn’t mean they are pathetic, they’re making

themselves useful with only what they have like beauty, charisma, and acting.

At least they are contributing to the society. In the stance of morality, many

people still believe that pornography is immoral. In the United States for

example, 66 percent of the respondents say that pornography is immoral, 31

percent says it can be morally acceptable, while 3 percent said that it depends

on the situation. But why is it immoral? Simply, they get this notion from the

standards created by their faith, mostly Christians, thus a misunderstanding

arises when two religions present their standard when it comes to understanding

pornography. Again, moral stances should not be biased towards any religion

but are dependent on world orders and systems.

3. Watching pornography doesn’t make you less of a person, it also has

advantages, it improves the attitude and opinion towards sex and the human

body, it is a way of releasing stress, sexual tension and relaxing to improve the

human body and mind. In terms of relationship, The Anne Summers survey also

found that couples who regularly watched porn together were more committed,
 and over half of women said it improved their sex lives. Plus, a recent study in

The Journal of Sex Research found that sexually satisfied couples were more

likely to share their fantasies, and porn is one great way to introduce that topic.

C. When do people start?

1. A study conducted in the Philippines by Quiban, et. al. claimed that among their

total sample of eight, six first saw porn was about 12-18 years old. And the

other two only saw porn because someone showed it to them. They asked their

participants, “when do they see porn?”, they answered unanimously, when they

are fueled by their libido or as they say it, “horny”. Of those eight, two said,

they view porn for they like seeing people having sex, for it is natural, four said,

they watch porn out of curiosity, one said it’s the way he releases his sexual

craving and the last said he was tripping. And for them sex is something natural.

2. Pornography should be viewed by adults only. But in these era, teenagers can

already be exposed to porn at a young age. That’s why sexual education should

be implemented in High School, this are the times, teenagers discover

themselves and finds out what they’re capable of doing, specifically having a

pre-marital sex, which instead of masturbating, both gender discover a part of

themselves by engaging in a sexual experience, this kind of example is when

they lack of guidance, being educated from what they should be doing. Sex-Ed

suggests that watching porn with proper guidance, can help lessen teenage

pregnancies. Because, instead of trying sexual intercourse with their partners,

they get to see what to do, and how do they manage when to pull out. We can

say that pornography should be legal in terms of lessening the teenage

 pregnancy crisis, because people about ages 13-18 starts watching porn, and not

because to educate themselves, but to satisfy their lust instead of doing it with

people, but without the proper guidance, porn creates a path for teenagers to

experiment on their own by having sex first hand because of what they’ve seen,

but if educated, they would’ve known how to handle their libido.

In conclusion.

Pornography can be profitable, and when viewing this kind of material, avoid being biased

towards being religious, but instead, widen your perspective by seeing it on being dependent how

the world and system works.

Viewing porn at a young age, can only be acceptable when guided, and informed of the

capabilities, the pros and cons of pornography. That’s why sex education should be implemented,

so that teenagers won’t have to suffer pregnancy at a young age, and be taught on doing safe sex.

There are too many issues encapsulating pornography. Too many view surrounding it that

one cannot simply determine which to believe and falls to public or societal pressure. Those who

think porn is bad did not really think that way. they were just too stressed by different view towards

it banked on the views of many, deeming pornography as immoral. Hence, the way things are seen

can be based on how people react and interact with their society.

In the end, everyone must decide for themselves if pornography is good or bad.