A CRIMINAL ACT TO END A LIFE BEFORE BIRTH

The Philippine Constitution promotes a hierarchy of rights -- life, liberty and property. The right to life is the most fundamental and essential right of all and without such right other human rights would be inexistent.

Under our present Constitution, the State equally protects the “life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.”1 This does not say that the unborn is a legal person; nor does it deny, however, that the state under certain conditions might regard the unborn as a person. It does not assert that the life the unborn is place on exactly the same level as the life of the mother. It recognizes that, when necessary to save the life of the mother, it may be necessary and legitimate to sacrifice the life of the unborn. It, however, denies that the life of the unborn may be sacrificed merely to save the mother from emotional suffering or to spare the child from a life of poverty. The emotional trauma of a mother as well as the welfare of the child after birth can be attended to through other means such as availing of the resources of welfare agencies.2

In the Roe vs. Wade3 decision, abortion law was liberalized by allowing such up to the sixth month of pregnancy at the discretion of the mother any time during the first six months when it can be done without danger to the mother. The Supreme Court decision in the said case overturned a Texas interpretation of abortion law. It held that a woman, with her doctor, could choose abortion in earlier months of pregnancy without restriction, and with restrictions in later months, based on the right to privacy. It invalidated all state laws limiting women's access to abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy. State laws limiting such access during the second trimester were upheld only when the restrictions were for the purpose of protecting the health of the pregnant woman. Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion in the United States, which was not legal at all in many states and was limited by law in others. The decision was rendered in protection of a person’s right to privacy having it based primarily on the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a part of the Bill of Rights stating that “the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”.4

The unborn’s entitlement to protection begin from the moment of conception. In biology, it means the fertilization of an egg cell by a sperm cell and thus marks the beginning of pregnancy. By its meaning as a noun in the Encarta dictionary, it means the beginning or origin of something. The moment of conception, however, is hard to pin-point hence abortion is made illegal in the Philippines by leaning to the safer side of the argument.

Pursuant to this policy and principle, the Revised Penal Code penalizes and makes it a crime to a willfully kill the “fetus in the uterus or the violent expulsion of the fetus from the maternal womb which results in the death of the fetus.”5 Articles 256 to 259 of the same code define the various ways and means by which abortion is committed and this ordinarily means as the “expulsion of the fetus before the sixth month or before the term of its viability, that is, capable of sustaining life.”6 Therefore, once a woman is known to be pregnant, a life of a new being, distinct and separate from her body is existent and that made her decision to herself becomes questionable.

In the Philippines, there being harmony between the State principle and the criminal law on abortion, the decision in Roe vs. Wade will never be realized.

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1 The 1987 Philippine Constitution, Article II, Section 12.
2 Bernas, The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines: A Commentary (2003), pp. 84-85.
3 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
4 Jone Johnson Lewis, Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision, Retrieved March 19, 2008 at http://womenshistory.about.com/od/abortionuslegal/p/roe_v_wade.htm.
5 Reyes, The Revised Penal Code: Criminal Law, Book II (2001), p. 488.
6 Ibid.

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Submitted to Atty. Farah Decano in my Legal Writing Subject. I do not know what grade I got on this one.

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE

Divorce is recognized around the world but not in Malta and in the Philippines and it should always remain unrecognized in this country.

Is it not enough that the Family Code of the Philippines gives two alternatives to people who want to get out of failed marriages – annulment and legal separation? Why do we need to push a bill on divorce?

Annulment is the remedy to remarry which entails proving in court that a marriage is void from its beginning due to psychological incapacity.1 Legal separation on the other hand does not dissolve the marriage bond between legally separated spouses thus forestalling them from pursuing subsequent marriages.

Attempts to legalize divorce in the Philippines have always been the subject of moral and legal debates. Divorce is not only a legal issue but also a moral issue thus making it difficult to resolve. The Philippines is dominantly Catholic and the Catholic Church is not in favor of divorce.

Morally speaking, divorce is seen as a universal error and a serious violation of God’s law based on the Catholic teachings that marriage is a sacred contract to the dignity of a sacrament. Such violation produces serious problem leading to social problems like runaway teens, drug addictions, prostitution, low self-esteem, depression and even suicide. Archbishop Oscar Cruz, D.D. Canon lawyer and a president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said that for “those desirous only of doing away with an impossible relationship with no intention to remarry, the recourse is legal separation not divorce. Regarding anomalous relationships such as in the case of psychiatric persons or behavioral deviants, once proven by experts that any of these have been existent at the time of the wedding, then civil marriage annulment is the recourse, not divorce.”2

Legally speaking, to sanction the availability or validity of divorce in the Philippines is to violate constitutionally set principles on marriage and family.

Article XV of the 1987 Philippine Constitution discusses family as a basic social institution protected and strengthened by marriage, to wit:

Sec. 1. The State recognizes the Filipino family as the foundation of the nation. Accordingly, it shall strengthen its solidarity and actively promote its total development.
Sec. 2. Marriage, as an inviolable social institution, is the foundation of the family and shall be protected by the State.

The Family Code consequently provides 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.”3

Therefore, whatever legal route the proponents of a divorce law in the Philippines may take, it will end up running against the fundamental laws of the land. Besides, if someone thinks of marriage and settling for a family, he would not think of divorce and if there is such thing as divorce, then there is no really such thing as marriage.

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1 The Family Code of the Philippines, Article 36: A marriage contracted by any party who, at the time of the celebration, was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations of marriage, shall likewise be void even if such incapacity becomes manifest only after its solemnization. (As amended by Executive Order 227)2 PRO-Life Philippines, Divorce - reducing marriage to a temporary sexual contract, Retrieved: March 19, 2008 at http://www.prolife.org.ph/page/divorce.3 Supra, Article 1.

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Submitted to Atty. Farah Decano in my Legal Writing subject. I do not know what grade she gave me for this.

I’M SO STRESSED OUT!

I received a message from a special someone inviting me to become his resident article blogger writer (wachamacallit) in a blogsite he have just created and without a second thought, I accepted the invitation.

Writing my first article, however, gave me a hard time more than I expected. First, because, I am into a rush of things—completing lists at work, researching, reading, reviewing and writing case digests. Second, my hand is already black and blue due to the first cause. Lastly, my mind is polluted with stress brought by my busy life. Then from there, I created the title.

We all experience stress. Today’s rapidly paced society and complex environment creates stress for many of us. Air and noise pollution, traffic congestion, crime, excessive workload, name all those factors that constantly pressured you to accomplish more and more in less and less time. Then add foreseeable or unexpected events that comes into our attention—death, getting stuck in a traffic, disaster, calamity, losing your wallet, recitation, quiz and exams! All of these cause stress.

Stress is a feeling created in reaction to particular events. It is the body’s way of mounting to a challenge and preparing to meet a tough situation with focus, strength, stamina, and heightened alertness.

However, people’s reactions to stress differ widely: some develop serious psychological or physical problems and others may find themselves in a challenging and interesting situation or environment. Let me quote at this point a text message forwarded to me by a friend. It says, “When it rains, all the birds fly for shelter but the eagle alone avoids the rain by flying above the clouds. Problems are common to all but attitude makes the difference.” I really don’t know if the bird scenario is a factual statement but the essence of the quote matters to me.

The invitation I responded to made me realize that I am one of the others and not one of the some. Nonetheless, I am also like the birds that fly for shelter when it rains and not like the eagle that will fly above the clouds.

I, being the social stratification theory advocate, have always view every event and everyday happenings as part of my providence. No matter how stressful an event is, I always see it as a challenge to test my capabilities and limits. I believe that change might be a conflict yet it is normal and always should be an opportunity for growth rather than a threat to security. I have personally observed that stress is easier to tolerate when its cause is shared by others. In our Land, Title and Deeds class, we were given more than 50 cases to digest for four Thursdays. Individual anxiety (which is obvious with most of my classmates) tend to be forgotten when the cases are divided into working teams. Companionship (of friends), then, distract us (UPang 2nd year Law Students ’08-’09) from our worries. Other people like family and special someones bolster self-esteem by providing support financially, morally and spiritually.

Hence, like the birds that fly for shelter, I know that I am a being with limited capabilities; that rather than being alone flying above the white cottony mass of air and water, being with other creatures like me in a strong branch of tree is a time for me to enjoy being still; and that the rain is a signal for me to stop to rest, for me to be able to cope and fight stress again.

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The writer stopped after writing 12 case digests out of 56 cases in one of her law subjects to write this article. She still need to study and review in the evening for a recitation after working in a legislative district office the next day. Aside from the 56 cases she is digesting, she also needs to digest more than 50 cases more all in all in her other law subjects.

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NOTE: Originally published in Praetorian '03, August 20, 2008. Written on August 18, 2008 at 7:20 PM

A Working Law Student

I am a law student. Contrary to what other people thinks about law students—intelligent and rich, I am an average learner and belonged in a middle class family. My books except on Commercial Laws are borrowed from a close friend, photocopied and bounded. I am also at the same time, working. I work for a law maker and is in-charge of whatever may be delegated to me but my main job concerns youth affair programs consultation and implementation.

That is the consequence of being above the poverty line yet short of belonging to an elite society. I need to work to support my studies aside from the fact that I need to support, as well, my 2^nd year Civil Engineering student brother by sharing with him 25% of what I earn and give at least 10% also to my mother for household daily expenses.

Class usually starts at 5:30 in the afternoon. Before the clock ticks 4, an hour before that, I have to make sure that I have at least completed 75% of the task I should finish that day because I have to give myself time to review the lessons to be discussed later. But most of the time, when I am in the office, I dig myself to work and ends up finding myself reading inside the bus on my way to school.

Studying law is no joke. You have to read bundle of cases which also follows that you are required to digest. Sometimes, more than 10-20 cases are assigned by the judge or lawyer-instructors as reading materials which you are required to recite in class the following meeting and if you are “luckily called”, you will be standing citing the facts, the issues and the ruling of the cases for an hour or two.

To study law entails having sleepless nights, big eyebags, and noticeable pimples. To study law is to understand the provisions and not just to memorize them. It entails laborious study evidenced by practitioners themselves who still study their law even they already surpass the Four Sundays of September (I am referring to the Bar Examinations held annually in the Philippines). They say that it is really important to study and stay updated because every lawyer’s task is to master the law for them to be able to competently assist their clients in the hall of justice.

After sitting of standing in class for more than an hour, I go home and usually arrives 9:30 in the evening. I will eat, take a rest, watch my primetime favorites then study afterwards before going to bed.

That is the reason why I love to describe myself in a web profile in this sentence: Sometimes, I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to.

With those aforementioned facts, most people will think of me having a boring life. All is routineary. But I will contest! My life is in fact, exciting!

I have been working since I was 19. At such an early age, I have worked with officers in the highest rank. I got to shake hands with the President, the Vice-President, the former Speaker of the House and local officials in the Province of Pangasinan. I get to interact with those people from different walks of life almost everyday. After more than 2 years or after being an employee of the province, new work experience was offered. Almost the same nature yet I have in my shoulders responsibilities. Responsibilities are challenges. And it is what keeps me going.

To add to these, one may wonder if I’m still having fun. I mean, fun shared with friend and/or with a special someone. Of course I do! I have a boyfriend and I have lots and lots of friends. After all, love is what weaves these roles together and makes the real me--a plain and simple working law student.