Church renews fight vs child porn

As the anti-child pornography law takes effect next week, the Catholic Church has begun drawing up new strategies to combat the problem. Msgr. Pedro Quitorio III, media office director of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said Friday the Church will work closely with the Optical Media Board (OMB) in fighting child pornography. "We will be doing some strategies. If the law would finally take effect, the church and the OMB will again help each other. I see the Church more involved here," Quitorio said in an article on the CBCP website. Quitorio and OMB Chairman Ronnie Ricketts met Thursday to discuss ways of campaigning against child pornography. “We will help to disseminate information and we will keep an eye on government agencies which are not doing their jobs well… the church don’t have police powers, only moral power," said Quitorio. On the other hand, Ricketts said “It’s good when you group behind like the CBCP who is also very concerned about this campaign… the people will realize that this campaign is really serious because the Church is involved." “It is destroying the children. This is worse than sex education. If the church is against improper sex education, the more in this issue which is creeping in from other countries to the Philippines," Quitorio says. The Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 or Republic Act (R.A.) 9775, to be implemented starting July 13, imposes stiffer penalties on those found guilty of child pornography. R.A. 9775 defines child pornography as "any representation, whether visual, audio, or written combination thereof, by electronic, mechanical, digital, optical, magnetic or any other means, or a child engaged or involved in real or simulated explicit sexual activities." The law stipulates that a victim of child pornography will be considered as a victim of a violent crime. It metes out penalties ranging from one month to life imprisonment and a fine ranging from P300,000 to P5 million. –VVP, GMANews.TV