PEOPLE v.

APARICI
Facts:
On February 3, 1953 Detectives Nibungco and Jose accompanied by
photographers Fajardo and Domingo of the Manila Chronicle, went to
Azcarraga Theatre, in order to observe what was being exhibited by the
accused Virginia Aparici there. She was in a dimly lit stage dancing with
her hips swaying with nothing on except nylon patches over her breasts
and a too abbreviated pair of nylon panties to interrupt her stark
nakedness and around her waist was a furry white girdle with a middle
piece punctuating attention on the thing she was supposed to hide. There
were more than 100 customers and all of them were men. Most of them
have

been

howling

and

shouting

in

tagalog:

sigue

muna,

sigue

nakakalibog. Detectives Nibungco and Jose stopped the show and asked
the accused to put on her dress and to surrender to them her brassiere and
panties.
In her defence, she claimed that her performance (hula hula dance)
was her portrayal of the life of a widow whose guerrilla husband was killed
by the Japanese; depicting the different emotions of the widow such as
sadness, anger and happiness. She was prosecuted for violation of Article
201 of the Revised Penal Code which penalizes:
3. Those who in theatres, fairs, cinematographs or any other place
open to public view, shall exhibit indecent or immoral plays, scenes, acts
and shows.
Issue: WON accused-appelants dancing was indecent or immoral in
violation of article 201 of the RPC?
Ruling: The court ruled that the accused had exhibited indecent and
immoral acts. The gauge whether her dancing was immoral or indecent was
the reaction of the public. Evidently, the spectators had given their

unequivocal verdict when they were howling and shouting: Sigue muna,
sigue, nakakalibog. Counsel for defense also advances the argument that
the reaction of the low class and uncultured audience is an unreliable gauge
in determining the objective indecency and decency of a performance. The
court clarified that the test whether a particular act is obscene is its
tendency to deprave or corrupt those whose minds are open to such
influences, be they cultured or not.