The Philippine Online Chronicles

Carlos Celdran was released on bail at around 4:00 PM October 1. See photos below

Carlos Celdran is not your typical rebel. He is more dangerous than Simeon, more vicious than Macario Sakay and more intellectual than Joma Sison.

Carlos does not have a gun. He does not have even a knife nor did a bolo tuck in his waist. He wields a different kind of weapon, more lethal than an M-16 rifle and sharper than any Swiss knife.

Carlos Celdran is your uber-subversive of the most creative kind. He is Carlos, the fox, anonymous no more.

Carlos Celdran is the cyber world’s version of a subversive, the kind that Jose Rizal wrote in his Noli and almost killed in Fili. When everyone already thought that the Supremo already killed these Padre Damasos, Celdran’s action yesterday reminded us of centuries past when friars ruled this land with a cross at one hand, and a vicious whip in another.

Celdran fights only with reason. He appeals to all of us. His actions spark the subversive within us. His fight against present-day clerico-fascists reminds us of those days when Jacintos and Pio Valenzuelas use the printing presses to spark a revolt, or those dark days of the Martial law regime where underground journalists write damning things about the Strongman.

Reason is the strongest weapon of the subversive. Words are like bullets, hitting cleric-fascists left and right, and killing ignorance almost instantaneously.

Who would have thought that Rizal would actually metamorphosed in the person of Carlos whose passion is historical relevance? After centuries of absence, Rizal just suddenly appeared before the clerics of our age, reminding them of the disease which almost wiped out Catholicism from the face of this archipelago.

The cleric-fascists of old want nothing more than feudalist allegiance. The friars of old poked their fingers at everything, even our most intimate moments. During those feudalist times, friars even sanctified sexual relations with women under their fiefdom.

Now, the friars of the new age want nothing less than interfering into our most intimate moments. They want to dictate how we have sex. They want to tell us how to make and unmake babies.

And the reason is simple, really. The more we reproduce the more souls they reap. These souls are ten pesos each. Imagine, how billions of pesos fill those offering boxes every single week. With 86 million Catholics, a ten peso donation translates into 860 million every single week. Wow.

What is disgusting in all these is the very fact that the Church wants Carlos silenced. In an age of liberality and respect of one’s right to self-expression, the Church acts as if every single soul is a property of religion.

Carlos Celdran should be freed immediately. Yes, he probably violated Article 133 Revised Penal Code but it does not justify incarceration, no. We are a democracy. We are not a clerico-fascist state.

Freeing Carlos Celdran will send a very significant message to everyone who opposes Church policies and that is, this Church, the one allegedly sanctified by Christ, as His true representative on earth, exercises true Christianity. Forgive those who show you the error of your ways, and forget still, their trespasses.

Atty Marlon Manuel, Counsel for Carlos Celdran

After Carlos Celdran was released, Chief Viray, Station 5 Chief , Elizabeth Angsioco, National Chairperson of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP), Benj Espina, Red Tani, and  The Filipino Freethinkers continue their stand for the Reproductive Health Bill

More on the Reproductive Health Bill

House Bill 916 or Reproductive Health Bill

Salient Provisions of RH Bill

Setting the record straight on RH Bill

Collection of articles on Reproductive Health and Population Development

If you support the RH Bill, please join the online petition.

Image from Free Carlos Celdran Facebook page.

Photos by Noemi Lardizabal-Dado. Some rights reserved.