A Manila court has acquitted Filipino drag artist Amadeus Fernando Pagente, better known as Pura Luka Vega, in a high-profile case involving his performance of the “Our Father” at a party that later went viral online.
Pagente’s performance drew widespread criticism not only because he danced provocatively while singing the Our Father, but also because he was dressed as the Black Nazarene – a dark-skinned image of Jesus venerated by millions of devotees during the annual 9 January procession.
Offending religion is a criminal offence in the Philippines, a Catholic-majority country where 66 per cent of the country regularly attends Holy Mass and 80 per cent identify as Catholic.
Pagente was charged with violating Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code, a 1930 law prohibiting “immoral doctrines, obscene publications and exhibitions, and indecent shows.” This provision penalises those who “offend any race or religion” or commit acts deemed “contrary to law, public order, morals, and good customs.”
In its 20-page ruling released on Tuesday, Branch 184 of the Manila Regional Trial Court said the prosecution had failed to prove that Pagente’s drag performance in July 2023 offended the “average Filipino.”
The private complainants belonged to a group called Hijos del Nazareno, but “failed to establish that they are the average Filipino or, at the very least, represent the average Filipino.” The court noted that the complainants had “admitted that they do not even represent their entire organisation.”
“The witnesses of the prosecution centred on their feelings of offence as devotees of the Black Nazarene,” the court said in the ruling signed by presiding judge Czarina E Samonte-Villanueva. “But the Court can barely consider the devotees of the Black Nazarene as the average Filipino without actual or justifiable reason, as this was not established or even alleged.”
Villanueva added that drag performances are “part of protected freedom of expression.”
“The Court is not unaware that freedom of expression is not absolute. However, it is incumbent upon the prosecution to show proof that the act complained of went beyond the limitations of such constitutionally protected right. Thus, in case of doubt, the freedom of expression must be upheld, and doubt must be resolved in favour of the accused,” she said.
Villanueva also advised Pagente “to be circumspect in his choice of medium or subject of his performances as a drag artist, taking into account the society he belongs to.” This, she said, “is basic in the concept of social coexistence.”
“This is not to curtail his freedom or rights nor to regulate his acts to belong to a presumed majority, but more to be compassionate on the community as a whole – especially with the accessibility of social media, which makes it easy to record, upload and circulate materials that are readily available for public consumption,” she added.
In a post on <em>X </em>on Tuesday, Pagente welcomed the ruling: “Thank you for this wonderful news. One more case left. The fight continues,” he wrote in a mix of English and Filipino.
Pagente has an unusual relationship with religion. Despite the offensive nature of the performance, he has also created a devotional-style image of Jesus, which he displays on his Instagram account under the title “Complex God.” Alongside it, he writes: “To all the queer artists out there, just keep creating. God created you just the way you are.” His most recent posts show him dressed as a schoolgirl during a performance alongside other drag artists.
Before Pagente was charged for his Our Father performance, the 1930 Revised Penal Code had been used to prosecute other figures for “offending religious feelings.”
In May 2023, Dominican exorcist Fr Winston Cabading was arrested and briefly detained after being sued by former judge Harriet Demetriou, a Marian devotee, for allegedly criticising devotion to “Our Lady, Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace.” The Vatican has rejected claims of an apparition in Lipa, Batangas in 1948, though devotees continue to seek a reinvestigation. The case against Cabading was dismissed in May 2024.
A decade earlier, cultural activist Carlos Celdran was convicted under the same law for unfurling an anti-clerical protest banner at Manila Cathedral in September 2010, during heated debates over a contraceptives law. The Supreme Court upheld his conviction in March 2018. Celdran died in exile in Madrid in October 2019, aged 46.
The Philippines is one of 95 countries with blasphemy laws, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in 2023. As in most such countries, imprisonment is the maximum penalty. In others – such as Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia – blasphemy is punishable by death.
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