By Joey Alarilla
INQUIRER.net

FOR years, I’ve been hearing that Playboy is coming to the Philippines, but finally next week the Philippine edition of this men’s magazine will hit newsstands.

The funny thing, however, is that the Philippine edition won’t feature frontal nudity, and will in fact be a lot tamer than the Playboy we know.

WTF? So why even bother bringing it here, presumably spending a fortune in licensing? OK, maybe the Philippine publisher is taking to heart the usual statement that “we read Playboy for the articles.”

Anyway, here’s what editor-in-chief Beting Laygo Dolor was quoted as saying:

“I think a lot of the church people, especially the more liberal ones, will appreciate what we are trying to do in terms of quality and content,” said Dolor.

Dolor said Playboy Philippines would feature Filipino women as “playmates” in the centerfold, but won’t show full frontal nudity or genitalia because that would run counter to Philippine business and cultural considerations.

“Maybe one nipple,” he said.

“If you have something like full frontal nudity, the chances are you will make a lot of enemies in the church, NGOs [non-governmental organizations], even in the government,” he said. “We don’t want to risk our copies being burned.”

He added that local advertisers won’t pay for space in such magazines.

Again, baffling statements. They didn’t have to come out with a local Playboy edition, but since they wanted to, you’d think they’d have more guts and be true to the product. Otherwise, why license it at all instead of coming up with a homegrown magazine? It’s not like Church people would be pleased that Playboy is officially here even if it’s tamer, so the publisher might as well have gone, um, all the way, heh

Anyway, what do you think?