While Philippine Catholic Church officials have joined Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis Tolentino in castigating Inferno author Dan Brown for describing the country's capital city as the gates of hell, the book earned positive reviews from major newspapers.

Fr Francis Lucas, head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' Episcopal Commission on Social Communication and Mass Media accused Mr Brown of getting rich by fooling people.

Former CBCP president Archbishop Oscar Cruz called for a boycott of the book. However, he also admitted that Metro Manila has its share of bad people.

"It is true, there are bad people in Metro Manila, there are killings, robberies, scams and abduction, but don't tell me that you will trade (living in the) Philippines for other countries like Middle East counties. Maybe Brown may want to go there and see for himself that the life of a person has no value, that fellow human beings are not treated with respect," he said in Filipino.

In defense of Mr Brown, another famous author, Paulo Coelho who wrote Alchemist, tweeted, "I am sure unintentionally, described Manilla (sic) as 'the gates of hell' in his new&successful book."

However, AFP noted that while the book is fiction, an excerpt on Mr Brown's Web site said, "all artwork, literature, science and historical references in this novel are real."

Noticeably, a number of tweets agreed with the observation of the fictional character in Inferno that Manila is not the most ideal city to live in.

Alexeivee, told Mr Tolentino, "'The gates of hell' could be in ANY country. Make it heaven by fixing Manila.'"

Likewise, Noem Lardizabal-Dado said he was not offended, while Anthony Rocha said, "I am sold!" Christoper Millora said he does not agree or find truth in the description of Manila as the gates of hell, but added he was not offended.

Others, like Kate M, had her interest piqued and tweeted, "I need to get hold of this new Dan Brown book 'Inferno." Ghio de Leon added that he expects some people to hate Mr Brown, who also authored the Da Vinci Code which has been published in 52 languages around the world with 200 million copies in print.

Mr Brown, in an interview with Time Magazine's Belinda Luscombe, said overpopulation was one of the issues he tackled in the book, but said he gave a fair discussion of both sides of the issue.

He admitted speaking against the Catholic Church stand against contraception, although he said the reference was to Africa.

While some Philippine public and church officials are bristling at Inferno, reviews by major newspapers give the book the thumbs up.

Janet Maslin of the New York Times wrote that Inferno is jampacked with tricks, while USA Today commented it is "as close as a book can come to a summertime cinematic blockbuster."

The Wall Street Journal found Inferno fast, clever and well-informed and said Dan Brown is the master of the intellectual cliffhanger. The Washington Post said, "Brown is at his best when he makes readers believe that dusty books and musty passageways are just covers for ancient global conspiracies."

The book was released on May 14 by Doubleday and has been translated into French, Turkish, German, Dutch, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.

But former Philippine President Joseph Estrada, who won in the May 13 election to be the new mayor of Manila, said Brown was just telling the truth about Manila.

Filipinos who want to get hold of a copy of the print edition and find out for themselves if the book was right or not in describing Manila as the gates of hell could buy the book at National Bookstore for P895 ($21.75).

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New Dan Brown Novel Inferno Angers Filipinos for Describing Manila as Gates of Hell