http://www.afpbb.com/article/life-culture/life/2302497/2279219
フィリピン最高裁、証明書の性別変更は認めず
【10月25日 AFP】フィリピン最高裁が、性転換施術を受けた元男性のRommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio氏が自身の証明書の性別変更を求めていた訴えを退けた。司法関係筋が明らかにした。最高裁は証明書の記載内容の変更を許可する法律はないとの判決を下した。
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=news5_oct23_2007
Manila Standard Today, Philippines - Oct 22, 2007
Court junks transsexual’s bid for change of gender
By Rey E. Requejo
THE Supreme Court yesterday rejected the appeal of a transsexual to alter his gender and first name in the civil registry, saying there is no law allowing such a change.
In doing so, the court upheld the Court of Appeals, which ruled on Feb. 23, 2006, that Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio could not change his first name to “Mely” and his gender to “female” in the civil registry, despite a sex operation in 2001.
In 2002, Silverio filed a petition to change his name and sex in his birth certificate before a Manila Regional Trial Court to facilitate his marriage to his fiancé.
But the government contested the decision before the appeals court and won a reversal on the grounds that no law allowed such a change.
“While petitioner may have succeeded in altering his body and appearance through the intervention of modern surgery, no law authorizes the change of entry as to sex in the civil registry for that reason. There is no special law in the country governing sex reassignment and its effect. This is fatal to petitioner’s cause,” said the decision written by Justice Renato Corona of the Court’s First Division.
With no such law, the Court added, the determination of a person’s sex at the time of birth, if not attended by error, was immutable.
Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Justices Angelina Sandoval Gutierrez, Adolfo Azcuna, and Cancio Garcia concurred with Corona’s ruling.
“In our system of government, it is for the legislature, should it choose to do so, to determine what guidelines should govern the recognition of the effects of sex reassignment. The need for legislative guidelines becomes particularly important in this case where the claims asserted are statute-based,” the Court said.
The justices also said the Office of the Civil Registrar, not the courts, was the proper venue for Silverio’s petition.
The court noted that the changes Silverio sought would have “serious and wide-ranging legal and public policy consequences,” and affect the laws on marriage and family relations and public policy in relation to women.
“The Court recognizes that there are people whose preferences and orientation do not fit neatly into the commonly recognized parameters of social convention and that, at least for them, life is indeed an ordeal. But the remedies petitioner seeks involve questions of public policy to be addressed solely by the legislature, not by the courts,” the Court said.
