"Life is short. Have an affair."
--Dating site Ashley Madison's catchphrase
Department of Justice chief Leila de Lima may be tangling with a pesky demon when she announced her office may ban the website Ashley Madison, which promotes and encourages adultery.
The Canadian-based dating site was launched recently in the Philippines and who spoke out first against it but de Lima.
Not a bishop or pastor but the DOJ secretary who must have more pressing battles to wage, such as the pork barrel scandal over which many other legislators still have to be indicted.
Maybe de Lima was asked about it during a slow news day. Her answer reported by SMS: "The website is a platform that allows illegal acts to be eventually committed. A ban may be enforced."
Indeed adultery is a crime under the Revised Penal Code, punishable with at least six months in jail. But advertising adultery is not. No specific provision saying it's a crime although the publicity may be struck down for violating morals, good order and public policy.
Forbidden
But how would de Lima ban the dating site on the argument that it might "eventually" lead people to violate the law? If Ashley Madison could be outlawed, so could many other platforms that, deliberately or not, abet adultery and other crimes: sites that tell how to poison people, make a Molotov cocktail or some other bomb, do perverse sexual acts, or cheat on your spouse.
Promoting adultery as an idea is not punishable just as adultery in the mind, despite what the Bible says, doesn't become criminal until you bed with the forbidden partner.
(paseares@gmail.com)