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NET/152825/CENSORSHIP-IN-THE-PHILIPPINES
COLUMNISTS
LOOKING BACK
First step would be to write a history of censorship in the Philippines that goes all the way back to the
Comision de Censura in the Spanish colonial period. First stop should be the primary sources preserved in
the Philippine National Archives where relevant material are arranged in bundles marked “Censura.”
Documents and notes that Wenceslao E. Retana used for his 1908 book “La censura de imprenta en
Filipinas” (Censorship of Print in the Philippines) are preserved in the New York Public Library. Then,
there was the Catholic “Index Librorum Prohibitorum” (Index of Prohibited Books) first compiled in
1557 by Pope Paul IV that was abolished in 1966 by Paul VI.
The Catholic Index was used by the Comision de Censura to determine what books could be printed or
imported into the Philippines. The Manila censors were so strict, they even impounded mathematical
books and dictionaries in the Aduana or Customs House until someone competent (or patient) enough
came to review and clear the books for release. Aside from Rizal’s books, would you believe “Robinson
Crusoe” was suspect? The late Bienvenido Lumbera said Filipinos were not allowed to own Bibles or
read these unsupervised for much of the Spanish colonial period because it was feared the natives would
misunderstand or misinterpret the text. A 19th-century travel account of the Philippines stated that Manila
Customs inspections were keen on concealed guns and Bibles brought into the country.
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