Swearing in Baguio banned under new ‘anti-profanity’ ordinance

swearing
The ban on swearing covered any business establishments that students are likely to frequent.

Swearing in Baguio could land you in hot water as the City of Pines introduces an anti-profanity ordinance. 

Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan has approved the measure, which prohibits cursing, swearing, blaspheming and expressing insults in places frequented by schoolchildren and adult students in the city.

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The ordinance, announced today (Tuesday, November 6) will cover schools, computer shops, arcades and other business establishments.

“Nowadays, it is observed that cursing has become a normal practice that even the children seem to have already accepted the habit as customary in our society, oblivious of the repercussions that it may result to,” the ordinance says.

The ordinance goes on to say that the habit of swearing had “already penetrated schools and educational system, business establishments and society as a whole, that even the very fabric of morals and human decency has deteriorated to such a degree that we have to prevent it before the damage would become irreparable”.

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Swearing defined…

The ordinance defines profanity as “all manner of cursing, cussing, expressing insults, whether directly or indirectly to anyone or anybody, or using profane and foul language, as a means of expression, or as a manifestation of anger, surprise, disgust or any other form of extreme emotion that yields to such expressions of profanity”.

All schools and colleges, including those catering for adults, have been ordered to “to provide the necessary penalties, graduated accordingly to the extent they may deem necessary”.

Staff and teachers have also been encouraged to display signs with the words: “Cursing is NOT allowed” or “Bawal Magmura”. Students violating the ordinance could face expulsion.

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As we have previously reported, Baguio City Council has previously discussed banning wolf-whistling or catcalling women.

The ordinance, entitled “Safe Streets and Public Spaces Ordinance of Baguio City”, seeks to punish “unwanted comments, gestures and actions forced on a person in a public space without their consent and directed at them because of their actual or perceived sex, gender, gender expression, or sexual orientation and identity”.

 

Wolf-whistling, catcalling, ogling and leering would all fall under the scope of the proposed ordinance, which remains under consideration.

Other punishable offences would include slurs, persistent requests for somebody’s name and number, public masturbation, groping, stalking and sexist, homophobic, transphobic and misogynistic acts.

Violators could face a 5,000-peso fine or up to six months in jail.

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