Gov’t asked to answer petition allowing same-sex marriage in PH

The Supreme Court of the Philippines building in Manila, Philippines. Photo by Mike Gonzalez / Wikimedia Commons.

MANILA — The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday ordered the government to answer the petition allowing same-sex marriage in the country.

The petition seeks to nullify the provisions of the Family Code that laid down the framework for the prohibition of same-sex marriage in the country.

The Civil Registrar-General was given 10 days to file its comment on the plea of Jesus Nicardo Falcis III, according to SC spokesman Theodore Te.

Falcis argued that the ban on same-sex marriage is a violation of the rights of the homosexuals and lesbians to due process and equal protection, marital privacy and to found a family in accordance with their religious convictions.

He then assailed Articles 1 and 2 of the Family code which limits the definition of marriage to “a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered into in accordance with the law for the establishment of conjugal and family life” and “the foundation of the family and inviolable social institution.”

Falcis, who admitted that he is homosexual in his plea, said that the Family code was approved with grave abuse of discretion.

He added that the 1949 Civil Code and the Constitution repealed by the Family Code did not specify parties in a lawful marriage.