The powerful Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) sought on Wednesday to ban the popular boy band One Direction from the Philippines in the light of the scandal involving the group, reports Pep.ph.

The English-Irish band is slated to have two days of concert in the Mall of Asia on March 21-22, 2015. Tickets to the two-day concert, despite being priced high, are selling fast.

The Web site quoted CBCP Episcopal Commission on Youth Executive Secretary Fr Conegundo Garganta as calling on Philippine President Benigno Aquino to ban the group whose two members were caught laughing and joking about marijuana in a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D2R8nwW0KQ) that has become viral.

The video clip featuring Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson has so far over 270,000 hits in YouTube. Louis was heard as saying "One very important factor of Zayn's warm-up, of course, is Mary J, herself."

Mary J is one of the slangs for cannabis.

Mail Online reported that the two shared a rolled-up joint while in the Latin American leg of their 2014 Stadium Tour.

Liam Payne, a member of the boy band, had actually apologised to the public on behalf of the two by tweeting, "I love my boys and maybe things have gone a little sideways I apologise for that. We are only in our 20s and we all do stupid things at this age."

Fr Garganta said, "I think that even the local organisers do not want to have a culture of youth being stoned. That could become a problem for them."

Even before the marijuana issue, the concert in the Philippines has generated controversy because of the steep price of tickets with the most expensive being over P17,000.

Some Filipino parents and youth were seen on TV crying out of frustration when the organisers ran out of the premium tickets, even if there were lower-priced tickets still available. Their reaction was seen as insensitive, particularly the ticket sales were held on the last week of May when other Filipino families were scrambling to raise money for tuition fee, while for kids perceived as brats, their main concern was not getting the best seats in the house to watch the boy band members, some of whom turn out to be MJ users.