Manila - A top aide of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Wednesday joined calls for movie regulators to ban the public screening of the controversial film The Da Vinci Code.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said he believes that the movie, which is based on the book by Dan Brown, would only confuse Catholics.
'We being a Catholic country, I think we should do everything not to allow it to be shown,' he said. 'At the least as a Catholic, it is blasphemous.'
'It would be better for us as good Catholics or good religious people to any denomination to discourage this,' he added.
Ermita said he has not read the book, which involves both a murder mystery and conspiracy in which the Catholic Church is depicted as covering up the nature of the Holy Grail and Mary Magdalene's relationship with Jesus.
The movie, top-billed by Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks, is scheduled to open in the Philippines next week. The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board has yet to issue a rating for it.
On Tuesday, Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, a senior Catholic church leader, urged the classification board to ban the movie because it 'destroys' the image of God and the Catholic Church.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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