Those of us who have known what it is like to be at the receiving end of unjust laws and official tyranny can only marvel at Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona’s latest paean to liberty and equality before the law. “We are a court of law,” Justice Corona sternly reminded Solicitor General Joel Cadiz at the presentation of oral arguments on the legality of the government’s travel ban against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. “It’s our job here under the Constitution to protect the rights of the individual citizen. It can be Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Juan de la Cruz, or it can be Mang Pandoy.”
Equality before the law
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Should we mark IWD on March 8?
March 8 has been celebrated as International Women’s Day since 1975, when the United Nations designated it as such in order to honor “women’s advancement” and to ensure that the “equality” that they had worked so hard for and achieved would be maintained in all aspects of life. Advancing equal rights meant that young girls could avoid child marriages and enjoy equal access to education, women could plan their families, and pregnant women would not be in danger of losing their jobs.
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Does gov’t understand women’s daily challenges?
Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma was reported as saying, “Women hold up half the sky” (“P-Noy makes pitch for gender equality,” Front Page, 3/9/14).
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Equality before the law
The highly anticipated arrest and detention the other day of Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. on charges of plunder proceeded quite smoothly, despite the brief jostling among the media, security people and horde of bystanders in the premises of the Sandiganbayan building. Surely, the police and the court’s security personnel could do better next time
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Champions for life
The 3rd national conference on sport pedagogy was hosted by the University of the Philippines Diliman last week, with some 200 participants from Batanes to Zamboanga, showing how we’re becoming more scientific in the teaching of sports.
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Leadership
The problems that Filipinos have today are symptomatic of a country that has lost its soul. While we have a bureaucracy discharging its mandate to perform its duties and responsibilities as prescribed by law, the very way in which this task is done sometimes does not make manifest our love of country. There is nothing
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Gender and trash in the elections
TODAY BEING International Women’s Day, it’s worth noting that the fact that two women are running for president and another woman is running for vice president of this country is no longer worth noting.
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Living free and equal
MADRID—In the quarter-century since the publication in 1990 of the first Human Development Report, the world has made astounding strides in reducing poverty and improving the health, education and living conditions of hundreds of millions of people. And yet, as impressive as these gains may be, they have not been distributed equally. Both between countries and within them, deep disparities in human development remain.
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Sexism in the streets
Until when am I going to endure men’s sexist remarks and stares?
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Why it won’t trickle down
The Oxfam report that eight businessmen have a combined net worth that equals the wealth of the bottom half of the world’s people once again brings to the fore the “obscene” inequality in many societies today. The report warns of more populist revolts, similar to the disenchantment behind the rise of a new kind of global fascism—a belligerent nationalism and racism riding on the discontent of underclasses left behind by the new growth spurred by a technology-driven global market.
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Canada’s commitment to women
Feminists the world over were tickled pink when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared in public that he was a feminist, while wearing a pink shirt at that.
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‘Babae kasi’
Rightly so, Filipino academicians like to boast that Philippine languages are generally gender-neutral, meaning we don’t differentiate males from females in our pronouns (siya in Tagalog), and in some of our nouns (kapatid for brothers and sisters, asawa for husband or wife; but note that in Cebuano, asawa is the wife and bana is the husband).
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Equal benefits for seniors
I recall the great American President Abraham Lincoln’s famous line: “All men are created equal.” Based on this universal principle, democratic countries developed and adapted it. Hence, governments endeavored to adhere to this principle.
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45 years of failure
Why do our government leaders still fail to deliver true justice and equality to poor Filipinos who have been suffering in silence? Isn’t it yet clear that the wealthy in high society have been allowed to fool the people since 1972 to 2017 with political bribes for their own evil purposes? That is how long our leaders have failed us.
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Safe, secure, equal
How does the Philippines fare when it comes to safety and security—specifically for women?
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Terrible misconceptions: Why we need the Sogie Equality Bill
The debate on the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression (Sogie) Equality Bill, formerly the Anti-Discrimination Bill, has been around for two decades. But for the past month until now, this dispute has garnered nationwide attention online—thanks to the online hearing held by the House of Representatives committee on women and gender equality last Nov.
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Authentic equality, diversity, inclusivity
Surviving and thriving in 2021 amid the pandemic was no easy feat, and I know you share the same sentiments. As we head into 2022 with new COVID-19 variants, along with new quarantine measures, we can say with certainty that there will be even more challenges to face in navigating this so-called “new normal.” Unhindered
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The fight for marriage equality
The institution of marriage has been historically celebrated as a union between a man and a woman. While we acknowledge that history, the debate does not end with it. The human rights project has recently found an unlikely ally. On July 12, 2022, Sen. Robin Padilla filed Senate Bill No. 449, seeking to legalize civil
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Equality vs equity in devolution
At last, the government has set the ball rolling on the devolution of its functions to local government units (LGUs), after a months-long review of the previous administration’s preparatory groundwork for the decentralization project. On Dec. 21, President Marcos issued a set of instructions to agencies to evaluate the impact of genuine local autonomy on
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