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    Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio, Petitioner VS. Republic of The Philippines, Respondent

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    Patrick Dag-um Macalolot
    The petitioner, Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio, sought to change the sex on his birth certificate from male to female after undergoing sex reassignment surgery. The lower court approved the change but the Court of Appeals reversed. The Supreme Court ruled that (1) the petitioner's birth certificate accurately reflected his sex as male at birth, and (2) under Philippine law, marriage is only allowed between a man and a woman, so the petitioner cannot marry his male fiancé. The court said any changes in the law regarding sex reassignment must be made by the legislature, not courts.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio, Petitioner VS. Republic of The Philippines, Respondent

    Uploaded by

    Patrick Dag-um Macalolot
    402 views9 pages
    The petitioner, Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio, sought to change the sex on his birth certificate from male to female after undergoing sex reassignment surgery. The lower court approved the change but the Court of Appeals reversed. The Supreme Court ruled that (1) the petitioner's birth certificate accurately reflected his sex as male at birth, and (2) under Philippine law, marriage is only allowed between a man and a woman, so the petitioner cannot marry his male fiancé. The court said any changes in the law regarding sex reassignment must be made by the legislature, not courts.

    Original Title

    35 G.R.-NO.-174689-CABALLO-EA

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    The petitioner, Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio, sought to change the sex on his birth certificate from male to female after undergoing sex reassignment surgery. The lower court approved the change but the Court of Appeals reversed. The Supreme Court ruled that (1) the petitioner's birth certificate accurately reflected his sex as male at birth, and (2) under Philippine law, marriage is only allowed between a man and a woman, so the petitioner cannot marry his male fiancé. The court said any changes in the law regarding sex reassignment must be made by the legislature, not courts.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    402 views9 pages

    Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio, Petitioner VS. Republic of The Philippines, Respondent

    Uploaded by

    Patrick Dag-um Macalolot
    The petitioner, Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio, sought to change the sex on his birth certificate from male to female after undergoing sex reassignment surgery. The lower court approved the change but the Court of Appeals reversed. The Supreme Court ruled that (1) the petitioner's birth certificate accurately reflected his sex as male at birth, and (2) under Philippine law, marriage is only allowed between a man and a woman, so the petitioner cannot marry his male fiancé. The court said any changes in the law regarding sex reassignment must be made by the legislature, not courts.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 9

    CASE NO.

    35

    ROMMEL JACINTO DANTES


    SILVERIO, PETITIONER
    VS.
    REPUBLIC OF THE
    PHILIPPINES, RESPONDENT
    G.R. NO. 174689 OCTOBER 22, 2007
    FACTS:
    ■ Petitioner Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio was
    born and registered as a male. He filed a petition
    for the change of his first name and sex in his
    birth certificate in the Regional Trial Court of
    Manila, Branch 8. He admitted that he is a male
    transsexual who underwent sex reassignment
    surgery. From then on, petitioner lived as a female
    and was in fact engaged to be married. He then
    sought to have his name in his birth certificate
    changed from "Rommel Jacinto" to "Mely," and his
    sex from "male" to "female."
    FACTS:
    ■ RTC rendered a decision in favor of the petitioner.
    The Republic of the Philippines, thru the OSG, filed
    a petition for certiorari in the Court of Appeals (CA)
    alleging that there is no law allowing the change of
    entries in the birth certificate by reason of sex
    alteration. CA ruled in favor of the OSG.
    ISSUE:
    ■ Whether or not the petitioner can
    marry his male fiancé under Philippine
    laws.
    RULING:
    ■ No, the petitioner cannot marry his male fiancé under
    Philippine laws because he is a “male”.
    ■ This is in line with Article 1 of the Family Code of the
    Philippines which states that “marriage is a special
    contract of permanent union between a man and a woman
    entered into in accordance with law for the establishment
    of conjugal and family life. It is the foundation of the family
    and an inviolable social institution whose nature,
    consequences, and incidents are governed by law and not
    subject to stipulation, except that marriage settlements
    may fix the property relations during the marriage within
    the limits provided by this (Family) Code.”
    RULING:
    ■ Applying Article 1 of the Family Code, marriage, being one
    of the most sacred social institutions, is a special contract
    of permanent union between a man and a woman. One of
    its essential requisites is the legal capacity of the
    contracting parties who must be a male and a female.
    Filing a petition for the correction or change of the entries
    in his birth certificate (one of which is his sex – from male
    to female) is petitioner’s first step towards his eventual
    marriage to his male fiancé. However, such petition is
    denied.
    RULING:
    ■ As provided by Article 412 of the Civil Code, no entry in the civil
    register shall be changed or corrected without a judicial
    order. The birth certificate of petitioner contained no error. All
    entries therein, including those corresponding to his first name
    and sex, were all correct. Hence, no correction is necessary.
    Article 413 of the Civil Code provides that all other matters
    pertaining to the registration of civil status shall be governed by
    special laws. However, there is no such special law in the
    Philippines governing sex reassignment and its effects. Under
    the Civil Register Law, a birth certificate is a historical record of
    the facts as they existed at the time of birth. Thus, the sex of a
    person is determined at birth, visually done by the birth
    attendant (the physician or midwife) by examining the genitals of
    the infant. Considering that there is no law legally recognizing
    sex reassignment, the determination of a person’s sex made at
    the time of his or her birth, if not attended by error is immutable.
    RULING:
    ■ For these reasons, 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. Thus, there is no legal basis
    for his petition for the correction or change of the entries in his
    birth certificate. To grant the changes sought by petitioner will
    substantially reconfigure and greatly alter the laws on marriage
    and family relations. These changes will have serious and wide-
    ranging legal and public policy consequences. The remedies
    petitioner seeks involve questions of public policy to be
    addressed solely by the legislature, not by the courts.
    ■ Hence, he cannot marry his male fiancé under Philippine laws.

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