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?
August 12th, 2008 at 4:33 am
bitin but thats the reality in the Philippines. We’re still prudes and our Catholic religion will always make us feel guilty.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
The only thing consistent about the Philippine edition of Playboy is the articles. Its the same as the articles in the American edition of the magazine however it CAN’T compete with the rest of the bunch (eg Maxim or FHM) in terms of Photos.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:55 am
i have the first 4 copies/editions of the magazine and all i can say is, “What a big disappointment!”
The Playboy brand, as we all know, has always been associated with women..nude women, that is. Nude women in poses that are not vulgar or offensive.
The Philippine edition is a big joke and offers nothing to the reader. They should not have used the brand to promote an entirely different product.