I read recently that Ashley Madison is in town! Ashley Madison is a dating site for people interested in finding a partner for an extramarital affair. It is a popular dating website based in Canada and has been around for some years now. Well, like most internet businesses, it needs to expand. What better place to expand but in Roman Catholic Philippines, the region’s Adultery Central!
Seems the government is not too happy about these developments though. Justice Secretary Leila De Lima wants the site banned because, get this, adultery is a crime in the Philippines…
De Lima stressed that “adultery” also remains against the law in the Philippines, even though it has largely been un-enforced and is a country where many powerful men flaunt their mistresses.
Adultery and “concubinage,” are punishable by at least six months in jail under Philippine law.
De Lima even issued a veiled threat to internet service providers (ISPs) saying that these businesses should “do their part to ensure that illegal content and websites that are used to drive illicit conduct are not used.” It’s like implying that they could, under Philippine law, be charged as accessories to such “crimes”.
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Lol! By that argument, the government should also ban all these “motels” that proliferate all over Metro Manila! For that matter, that’s another “crime” they could also add to the charges against former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile who is allegedly in a relationship with his purported mistress and “personal assistant” Gigi Reyes (who also happens to be accused of being an accessory to pork barrel thievery). Then there are also all the cops who come a very close second to Filipino politicians’ reputation as ladies’ men. Social media vigilantes will have a field day with their cameras! Pretty soon, everyone will be in jail!
Indeed, this is quite the Pandora’s Box. These people should think twice about opening these kinds of topics as it exposes the profound hypocrisy of Philippine society. If we start invoking this so-called “adultery” and “concubinage” laws for dumb arguments like these, then we may as well organize a morality police that specializes in el flargante delicto arrests.
They should just allow Ashley Madison to do its business in the Philippines. At least spouses need not keep checking their hubbies’ or wifeys’ phones anymore. They just need to logon to AshleyMadison.com and check out their partners’ most recent activities. Freedom of Information, right? I can imagine even now that this site will have some issues enforcing its privacy policies. Since all that monkey business it encourages its users to engage in is “illegal” in the Philippines, law enforcement agencies here will always have a good legal reason to demand access to all the data Ashely Madison collect from their users. Yikes! Something to think about there guys and gals.
Frustrated artist doing geek for a living.
This isn’t new for me, this is all up to each And everyone who lost thier dignity, and selfrespect. Specially to those involved of this illegal business site. They can’t stop this site as long as most in government official dis-obeying our law.
I can imagine a modern reworking of the Rupert Holmes song Escape ( the piña colada song) . Where a husband and wife enroll separately and discretely to the Ashley Madison then end up hooking up with each other not realizing they had so much in common like getting caught in the rain and not being much into health food.
In the Philippines, you can still legally kill your spouse if you catch them in the act of having sex with their paramour.
Oh the Chavit law.
The author of this article has some points that are truly obvious. But still DOJ has also valid points about the matter. So,in the end it is a matter of individual sense of morality and tolerance. Well I did not find the government move to ban the site something awful in that perspective. I believe it is a protective move for the public not a destructive one.
The Philippines’ solution to everything it can’t or afraid to deal with, ban it/them.
I visit manila a couple of times a year and i have been to places that “attracts” most foreigners to the country. I’m a single guy so i can freely admit that I’ve visited those places for my entertainment. But i can bet 80-90 percent of the people in there are married. So, how can those places exist without the scrutiny of these lawmakers? Hell, i know a couple of officers from the NBI and some City Officials who are regulars at these places.
Maybe, Ashley Madison should contact a couple of Senators and offer them free memberships for life.
All this ignores the practical reality of the situation in that it’s almost impossible for a country to “ban” access to a web site.
It’s a trivial matter to use a proxy or VPN connection to access any site you want. Just ask people in China how easy it is to access Facebook, which is banned there, or people in Thailand who access anti-monarchy sites.
Almost all of our political leaders have more than one wives. De Lima, herself has a Driver-Lover.
I am not condoning Adultery. But, if you ban such Website. People will be curious; and find the website in anyway; they can.
If you are adulterous; you will always be adulterous…if you are a one woman man , or one man woman. You will always be like that…loving your wife/husband always…
Honestly, even without the website Ashley Madison people have been doing what the website wants other people to do since time immemorial..only difference is, this one just wants to cash in on other persons infidelity.
What’s the point of getting married if everyone is being invited to cheat and I do think it does happen in a lot of relationships no wonder there are more people separating and having broken families, Has life become so boring that we have to become like dogs without fur, just f*ck here and f*ck there..yeah I know that people will have absolute right and entitlement to their own choices in life but isn’t this very irresponsible? And yet these same adults want us younger people to be “responsible” yeah fucking right. A real shining example. Funny thing is I hear that the owner of the site claims he doesn’t use it whether it’s true or not..
Then again like I said, even without this people have been doing it for a long time, it’s not really surprising. On the brighter side, if people want to do this, then they may do so since they are adults and they know what’s right and wrong and the consequences that may follow for sure they will have no problems explaining should everything fuck up.
The Grass may be “Greener” on the other side.
However, it has to be maintained to look good.
How about, if what you have exchanged is high maintenance? “Patay ka…loko ka…”
A valid point, indeed it may be “greener” but it doesn’t always mean that it is. I believe everyone has their own maintenance cost regardless whether it is high or low. You got children? They have maintenance cost. You got a wife/gf? They have maintenance cost..You have a house/car/lot or what not they have maintenance cost..you yourself have a maintenance cost. It just proves that we as human beings are selfish and alone because of that fact, some people can share it while some people don’t and that’s just fine.
Some people think that life’s a bitch and they married one, then yeah by all means check out the other “greener” grass. No fault with that, like I said people have been doing this since time immemorial and it’s nothing new..the only thing that kind of makes me cringe is the fact that some people are just drooling over the fact that they will cash in on this thing.
Anyway on a side note just noticed a Hyden Toro with a number on it now, are you still the same person that posts here? I’ve been away for quite some time so I’ll be catching up with some of the articles here.
YES…definitely, I am the same person. I started with the now closed: “Flipino Voices”, with the Webmaster:BenignO. We were both bloggers…
I am a Technical Man…I have a job and a family. But, I love to Blog…to let out some “steam” in me. And to help also our fellow Filipinos, in any way, I can…
I see, great to hear from you again. Blogging is a real nice way for therapy too. I agree that much.
Failippines hates the competition. What else is new?
No money, no honey!
Why can’t Muslims have more than four wives? Because, if he does, he is no longer a Muslim, he is a Filipino Catholic…
Bullshit. The Philippines is a Catholic country yet it reeks of pure greed, rampant corruption and not to mention low moral values. Guess people are still living in the Spanish colonial era then, lol. The church condemns adultery and corruption yet they do nothing about it. Pathetic.
Well, we can let the site operate, but we can tell customers of this site, “What? Can’t handle your family so you go for adultery? You a wussie or somethin’?” 😉
Parang Hindi lawyer si de Lima. There were a lot of court cases about motels especially during mayor Lima time in manila tying up with adultery. It’s not the business fault of people’s action. We all know these court cases didn’t go in favor of the government because the motel have no control over people’s actions.
Because if her logic is true, we should also ban selling of knives in the supermarket which can kill people, ban medicine being sold in pharmacy which can people use to overdose. Ban food and water being sold in restaurants which you can use to choke and drown people.
The website is explicitly marketed for people who want help in having an extra marital affair. Does someone markets kitchen knife as a weapon? And the website has been banned in other countries
Yes! Ban it. This website ashley madison will destroy the foundation of the philippine society which is the family. Therefore that website is an enemy of the state and must be dealt accordingly. I hope some patriotic citizens can cripple the site and to prevent it from resuming operations, threaten it with the stolen information of its patrons. We know that we have problem about adultery in our country, so don’t aggravate it
Regarding motels, it has other purposes, it serves as a shelter similar to houses. Just like any other tools, it would be the users that make them good or bad.
Banning of the website is not hypocrisy. Banning it would send a message that we don’t want immorality and wrongdoings. Allowing it is similar to approving your children to take drugs, drink liquor and have sex anytime they want
Typical butthurt reply. There are whore houses, strip clubs and karaoke places all over the Philippines that cater to the very ‘moral’ residents of the Philippines, and yet this is the one that is stirring up the Filipinos butt.
Neutral and rawr are living in their own utopian world. Let the site operate and the market will decide. That will indicate more or less if the Philippine populace is as moral as they say they are.
And here we are again at the subject of freedom and choice….why ban a website that offers a service that caters to the hypocritical? Heck, the whole damn gouvernment is full of hypocrits.
Legalize divorce then?
The real problem here is the total control Catholic Church has upon the filipino society. How would people do when divorce is illegal ? And this added to the total lack of birth control methods… They too often wed very young (usually because of an “accidental” pregnancy)… then are stuck all their lives with a guy who most of the time ran away, not to assume his responsabilities…
So what choice do they have than looking elsewhere ? At least Madison isn’t hypocrite…
If Mrs De Lima was more honest, she then would have to close down also all the “meeting” and “dating” websites, where literally millions of pinays broadcast the asian dream ?
Maybe because she would end up with a civil war ^_^