SAJ Leonen Talks on Law and Relationships, Love and Inclusivity
February 19, 2024
“Those who establish and maintain relationships and love differently from the ideals of the conservative Catholic majority are not less human, they are no less Filipinos. To be different is not to be abnormal. To be different from the hegemonic definition of what humans should be is not illegitimate. We should not pathologize them with words like psychological incapacity. They are not illegitimate. The capacity to love is a human capacity. You are not less human just because you find love in the same biological sex. You are not less human if you want a relationship that is different from marriage. You are not less human if your premise with another is that there is no forever but you can work to be with each other for as long as you both can. xxx Make love real for all our people.”
Thus, said Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen in his lecture titled “Legal and Political Foundations of the Current Restrictions on Intimacies and Relationships: A Critical View from the Bench” delivered on February 14, 2024 at the 2nd floor Lecture Room, Bocobo Hall, University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law in Diliman, Quezon City.
The Senior Associate Justice discussed various kinds of relationships, the complexities of marriage, legitimacy of children, divorce, and annulment in his lecture. Likewise, he cited several ponencias of the High Court in highlighting how the living realities in the Philippines of many couples and children are now far from ideal, adding that the law has made it difficult for Filipinos to move out of unhappy marriages. “Marriage as the foundation of the family no longer reflects the present realities and sensitives of many Filipino families,” he said.
On the topic of divorce, he pointed out that “the Philippines is the only country outside the Vatican that has no absolute divorce law applicable to all citizens.” He noted, however, that before the Spanish colonial period, the Philippines did have divorce laws, but it was during the Spanish colonial period when absolute or no-fault divorce was prohibited in the Philippines. “The antiquated form from our colonial past is still codified in our laws and is still being reiterated in jurisprudence 135 years later,” he said. And added that Spain, which predominantly inspired the Philippine antiquarian notions of family and children, had already changed their law decades ago.
“Perhaps if we truly want justice, we will see how antiquated our laws are. If we truly are for justice, we will feel how we impose a burden that is a vestige of our colonial past, that even our colonizer chose to no longer impose on their own people,” he said.
In this line, however, Senior Associate Justice Leonen discussed when divorce is allowed: in Muslim marriages under Shari’ah Law and as in marriages between a Filipino and a foreigner under Article 26 of the Family Code of the Philippines. Abuses to this, however, have also come to light, as in the case of Malaki v. People where a man was punished for converting to Islam solely for the purpose of contracting a second marriage, and his second wife was found guilty of bigamy for contracting that second marriage while the man’s first marriage was still subsisting.
Speaking before UP College of Law faculty members and law students, he said, “[w]e need to read our law from different lenses, from more contemporary ones. We need to construe law knowing that our freedoms should be individually and socially meaningful.” He added, “[t]he point of being lawyers is not to maintain an unjust status quo. The point is to change our world. Legal concepts are powerful frames for our thinking of reality, properly invoked through the right forms and with the right procedure and with competent lawyers, it triggers the coercive powers of the state, summarized in the dispositive portion of our cases.”
“Many of our people suffer during our watch, and while we all still exist, let us not fail them,” he ended.
Senior Associate Justice Leonen entertained questions from the audience after his lecture, which was organized by the UP College of Law and the Justice George Malcolm Memorial Foundation Inc.
In attendance were retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio and retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Conchita Carpio Morales, who are both members of the board of trustees of the Justice George Malcolm Memorial Foundation Inc. (Courtesy of the Supreme Court Public Information Office)
Senior Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen poses for posterity with the members of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law faculty and the Board of Trustees of the Justice George Malcolm Memorial Foundation Inc. after he delivered his lecture on “Legal and Political Foundations of the Current Restrictions on Intimacies and Relationships: A Critical View from the Bench” on February 14, 2024 at the 2nd floor Lecture Room, Bocobo Hall, UP College of Law in Diliman, Quezon City. (Courtesy of the Supreme Court Public Information Office)
Senior Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen answers questions after he delivered his lecture on “Legal and Political Foundations of the Current Restrictions on Intimacies and Relationships: A Critical View from the Bench” on February 14, 2024 at the 2nd floor Lecture Room, Bocobo Hall, UP College of Law in Diliman, Quezon City. (Courtesy of the Supreme Court Public Information Office)