Pasay City cops guarding CCP amid planned demonstrations

Pasay City Police (PCP) personnel are keeping watch over the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) amid a planned demonstration over a controversial art exhibit there. City police chief Senior Superintendent Napoleon Cuaton said over radio dzBB on Wednesday, "Wala silang na-receive na threat except kung magkaroon ng demo o rally." Cuaton said the PCP commander will hold a dialogue with the management as well as with security supervisors of nearby establishments to detect unusual activity in the area. CCP gallery closed down The CCP closed down on Tuesday the main gallery where the controversial "Kulo" art exhibit is on display. In a statement, the CCP said threats to persons and property influenced the management's decision to close down the gallery. One of the artworks displayed in the gallery — artist Mideo Cruz's piece, a mixed-media collage called "Poleteismo" — was criticized as "blasphemous" and then vandalized last week. "Due to numerous emails, text messages and other letters sent to various offficers of the CCP, and to the artists themselves, with an increasing number of threats to persons and property, the members of the Board of the Cultural Center of the Philippines have decided to close down the Main Gallery where the Kulo Exhibit is on display," the CCP said in a statement. Legal action to push through Many of the groups opposing the exhibit said they would push through with their protests and legal action against those behind the exhibit. Lawyer Jo Aurea Imbong of the St. Thomas More Society of Lawyers said the case has to push through because “the Christian nation has been offended." She added that in the "serious offense," the CCP and the artist "are accountable under the law." Imbong earlier said the CCP and artist Mideo Cruz are liable for violating Revised Penal Code’s Article 201 on immoral doctrines, obscene publications, and indecent shows. Meanwhile, Pro-Life Philippines president Eric Manalang, one of those who demanded that the exhibit be stopped, said ending the exhibit will not stop their protest rally on Wednesday outside the CPP. “Stopping the exhibit does not stop the protest (for Wednesday)... the bigger picture of our government being the pied piper leading us to disaster on a straight path going to hell," Manalang said. - VVP, GMA News