IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM (How Don Ramon fought the Pinoy bomba sex komiks)

As mentioned previously in this blog’s “Reflections” entries, the coming of the Pinoy “bomba” sex komiks in 1968, seriously challenged the sedate, wholesome and antiseptically self-censored mainstream comics of the era led by Don Ramon Roces’ comics line. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Pinoy “bomba” sex komiks ruled the newsstands.

The first of these bomba komiks: POGI, was a shot in the arm for Filipino komiks readers who, since 1947, were used to the self-censored, family-friendly and conservative comics of the era.

Other bomba komiks immediately followed suit in 1968: DYAGAN, TORO, BARAKO, PIL-YEAH! and many others. Mainstream Filipino comics was seriously losing its audience to this new brand of alternative reading fare operating beyond the ambit of the industry’s self-censor regulating body: the APEPCOM (Association of Publishers, Editors of Philippine Comics Magazines).

To recall, APEPCOM’s members adopted word for word, the editorial guidelines known as the “Golden Code” of Don Ramon’s Ace Publications. In short, the editorial policy of one comics company was adopted by (or imposed on) ALL other competing comics companies. The editorial viewpoint of one comics company became the standard of an entire mainstream comics industry.

APEPCOM was conveniently headed by Don Ramon’s right hand man, the so-called “Father of Filipino Komiks”: TONY VELASQUEZ. Any competitor publisher who is a member of the APEPCOM who did not follow its self-censorship code was severely sanctioned. That all changed however, with the coming of the outlaw bomba sex komiks

How did Don Ramon confront this new competition? By making a bomba sex comic of his own, albeit allegedly cleaner and with more intelligence. The name of Ace Publication’s first “clean” bomba sex comic shamelessly appropriated the name of the first Pinoy bomba komik, lamely calling itself: POGI MAGAZINE FOR MEN (PILYO NGUNIT CLEAN FUN!).

Ace’s POGI had R.R. Marcelino as Editor-in-Chief. Contrary however to what was claimed, Ace’s POGI also followed the same format of having sexy pictures of semi-nude women, articles on sex, the bizarre, crime, the supernatural, and comics features on sex. To separate this new “wholesome” innovation from its raunchy competitors, Ace’s POGI was dubbed a MEN’S MAGAZINE and not a bomba komik.

Ace’s POGI was 68 pages, in comics newsprint format, colored photo covers complemented by interior black and white comics pages, short crime stories, articles and photos, and also priced as their competitors at 40 centavos.

But having a similar and competing publication wasn’t enough. Whenever it got the chance, Ace’s POGI lambasted the competition. It had a field day when on one occasion, a huge female student led, anti-smut rally was staged by APEPCOM member Fr. Rizalino Veneracion aided by future “We Forum” editor-in-chief, Jose Burgos. Personalities from the rally then visited the Manila Mayor’s office reporting to then Mayor Antonio Villegas that “pornography” was being sold in the newsstands. Manila Police then began raiding the nearby stalls and kiosks and confiscated many Pinoy bomba komiks titles.

Ace’s POGI lost no time in vilifying the Pinoy bomba komiks publishers within its pages. In one such article written by their “editorial consultant”, the rally and subsequent raid of the smut komiks was celebrated. The consultant further denied the charge that Don Ramon’s POGI staff had something to do with the raid. The same consultant continued to claim that some of POGI’s staff were forced to go to City Hall because its Men’s Magazine was also confiscated by the police. But, he further claimed that since the police found Ace’s POGI to be clean and wholesome, they returned back the confiscated copies. The pertinent portion of that POGI article written in Tagalog by the editorial consultant is herein reproduced in full:

“Bale ba, Pare ko, ikinakalat ng mga dirty publishers and dirty editors na iyan na kami raw na mga taga-POGI magazine ang nagsumbong sa City Hall at nagpasamsam. My God! Pare ko, talaga nga palang pinanlalabo na ng kasakiman sa salapi ang isipan ng mga taong iyan. Pagkat, kailangan pa ba naming magsumbong sa City Hall, e, gayong usap-usapan na sa lahat ng dako ang kababuyan ng kanilang mga magasin…hanggang sa pati ang mga kabataan ay nag-demonstrate laban sa kanila?

Tutoong nagpunta kami sa City Hall, ngunit, ito’y nang mabalitaan naming ang pananamsam ng pulisya sa mga magazine stands, pati itong ating POGI, at pati ang iba pa naming magasing tulad ng SIXTEEN at PILIPINO KOMIKS ay sinamsam na rin. Lahatan na ang ginawang pananamsam ng pulisya. Wala nang pili. At ito’y masama, pagkat ito’y laban sa freedom of the press.

Kaya’t humango kami sa City Hall, at ipinagtanggol naming ang aming mga magasin, na sa mula’t mula pa ay batid ng lahat na responsible at may malasakit sa bayang mambabasa. Bunga nito, binuklat ng mga ospisyales sa City Hall ang aming mga magasin, lalo na ang POGI, at inihambing sa mga dirty komiks at dirty magazines: malinis ang mga ito, on the level, may misyon…at sa POGI ay makasining ang mga pin-up girls at scientific ang pagkakasulat ng mga artikulo tungkol sa sex.

At sa opisyales ng City Hall ay mayroon kaming natuklasan: hindi sila prudish. Mga tunay na lalaki sila. May healthy outlook sila sa sex, at alam nila where art ends and where pornography begins. Kinikilala rin nila na kailangan sa ating kalalakihan ang magkaroon ng MAGAZINE FOR MEN, ngunit sa isang paraang makasining, pilyo nga, ngunit pino, at may maturity ang pagkakasulat ng mga artikulo tungkol sa sex…bagay na siya mismong patakaran ng ating POGI simula pa sa unang labas nito.

Iyan ang tunay na nangyari, at hindi tulad ng ibinibintang sa amin ng mga nasamsaman, na kung sinu-sino ang sinisisi, gayong ang kanilang mga kabulukan ang dapat nilang sisihin.

So, with the blessing of the authorities, na kumikilala sa kagandahan ng misyon ng POGI, magpapatuloy ang magasing ito sa kanyang plataporma na imulat sa kalalakihang Pilipino na ang sex ay malinis, maganda…na ang paksang ito’y hindi na taboo…na maraming problema na may kaugnayan sa kalungkutan o kaligayahan ng isang nilalang, at ang mga ito ay siya naming laging papaksain sa bawat labas ng POGI sa scientific na paraan, tungo sa lalong ikatatatag ng Pamilyang Pilipino na ang pinakahaligi ay ang lalaki.

Sa hanggang dito, Pare Ko. At huwag mo sanang kalilimutan: malapit nang lumabas ang brother na magasin nitong POGI…ang PILIPINO ADONIS. Magazine for men din ito, at tinitiyak ko sa iyong hindi ito iinsulto sa intelligence mo bilang isang binata, o esposo, o ama.

Ang iyong ‘Adre,
MARS RAVELO. “

(Source: from the article: ”Sinamsam ng Pulisya ang malalaswang Komiks at Magazines for Men!” appearing in POGI MAGAZINE FOR MEN (PILYO NGUNIT CLEAN FUN!), Ace Publications, Inc., September 18, 1969, Issue No. 13, p. 15)

Yet, as we fast forward 15 years later to 1984, a very different story emerges totally belying, negating and disproving the above cover-up by Mars Ravelo. In the 1984 edition of “History of Komiks of the Philippines and other countries” published by Don Ramon’s Islas Filipinas Publishing, it disclosed that it was actually APEPCOM who reported the incident to City Hall and moved for the confiscation or raid on the Pinoy bomba sex komiks:

“In the late 1960s, smut komiks appeared—no doubt influenced by the wave of permissiveness then pervading the West and emboldened by the near anarchic-conditions obtaining in the country. Called “bomba” komiks—the “bomba” was euphemistically used for explicit sex graphics --- the publications aroused the ire of concerned citizens and spurred the APEPCOM to move against them. The Association tried to make Manila City Hall to clamp down on the “bomba” komiks. It was a move doomed to fail from the very start; it was to be found out later that certain men close to the authorities were protecting, if not actually financing, the smut publications. The APEPCOM was still battling the “bomba” komiks when martial law was proclaimed in 1972. The smut publishers were immediately arrested by the military, thus ending an ugly chapter in the history of Philippine komiks.” (Emphasis Ours) (From the article: “Pornography in Print” appearing in Cynthia Roxas, et. al., “History of Komiks of the Philippines and other countries”, Islas Filipinas Publishing, 1984 ed., p. 58)

Ace and APEPCOM have one thing in common: Don Ramon Roces.

Though the publishers of the Pinoy bomba sex komiks were arrested, they would resume once more in the early 1980s and well into the 1990s with some of Don Ramon’s other comics companies like INFINITY for example, repeating history anew by putting out “INIT” tauted as a “clean” bomba komik or Men’s Magazine.

With the Roces monopoly now long gone and along with it the mainstream Filipino comics industry, we still see the Pinoy bomba sex komik still alive and kicking in various incarnations as crass, undeveloped, inferior trashy fare in some tabloids, or in the form of a comic surreptitiously passed along beyond the authorities’ sight, and as comics supplements in some Pinoy “Men’s Magazines” today like “Red”, “10” and “18”. Just goes to show you, if you can’t beat ‘em, FORGET IT.

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