MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A popular Filipino tour guide and activist has been convicted of disrupting a religious service in the Manila Cathedral to protest the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church to state funding for contraceptives.
Metropolitan Manila Trial Court found Carlos Celdran guilty Monday on the criminal charge of offending religious feelings. The charge is seldom used in the predominantly Catholic country. Celdran barged into the cathedral in 2010 and lambasted the clergy for campaigning against the Reproductive Health Bill, which Congress passed into law last month.
Celdran is facing a prison sentence of between two months and one year, but his lawyer Marlon Manuel said they would appeal and that his client posted a bail for temporary liberty.
Celdran said later he doesn't regret his action.
