The Philippine Daily Inquirer has pulled out long-running comic strip Pugad Baboy over a supposed low blow against students and administrators of an exclusive girls’ school.
The Pugad Baboy strip (here) discussed the supposed hypocrisy among Catholics for condemning gays and lesbians while “condoning” lesbian relationships in exclusive schools. The strip mentioned St. Scholastica’s College, where., a character in the strip said “you will not find a pretty kulasa (a term for students of SSC) who does not have a girlfriend.” Another character wondered whether the nuns running the school were lesbians themselves.
Inquirer reader Jenny Santiago, who said she was a “true blue Kulasa” left a comment on the Pugad Baboy strip saying “I’m proud that we were taught to always keep an open mind about things. We were encouraged to question our teachers and voice out our opinions – the very reason why I am even bothering to comment on this judgmental comic strip. True, exclusive schools have their fair share of gays and lesbians – nothing weird there; they are everywhere, and I’m glad they are, because that means they have the freedom to be themselves.”
A Guest had this to say: “St Scho. woudn’t be able to control the students if they choose to be lesbians. Second, why are you attacking St Scho? Are we the only exclusive school with this kind of issue? Third, you’re obviously generalizing not only the school, but also the entire Christian community. You can’t just use my alma mater to provide example for hypocrite Christians who, you say ‘hate gays and lesbians’. And lastly, not all Christians hate gays and lesbians.”
Comments on social media have been mostly supportive of Pugad Baboy and critical of the Inquirer’s decision to pull out the strip.
Pol Medina Jr., the strip’s creator, said on his Facebook page that “if you zoom in on that particular strip that got me fired, you’ll see that the strip first appeared in March. No reaction then. It was reissued after I made a series of Anti-Marcos strips, then BOOM! [It sarted trending on] Twitter. I smell a consPIGracy.”
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Photo: Detail from the cover of Pugad Baboy 24
