Supreme Court oral arguments on plea for marriage equality in PHL

The Supreme Court (SC) starts on Tuesday afternoon hearing oral arguments on a lawyer's petition that — if granted — would pave the way for same-sex marriage in the Philippines.

Arguing to challenge the Family Code's limit of marriages to heterosexual couples is lawyer Jesus Nicardo Falcis III, a gay man, who will finally see his day in the highest Philippine court three years after he filed his petition.

Arguing for the state is the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in behalf of the Civil Registrar General, which had in 2015, attempted to discredit Falcis' petition for "fundamental flaws."

In his 31-page petition filed May 19, 2015 but released by the SC on Tuesday, Jesus Nicardo Falcis III asked the tribunal to nullify the portions of Article 1 and 2 of Executive Order 209 or the Family Code of the Philippines that define and limit marriage as between a man and a woman.

Expected to be tackled during the oral arguments are the following issues:

• Whether or not the Petition and/or the Petition-in-intervention is properly the subject of the exercise of the SC's power of judicial review;
• Whether or not the right to marry and the right to choose whom to marry are cognates of the right to life and liberty;
• Whether or not the limitation of civil marriage to opposite-sex couples is a valid exercise of police power;
• Whether or not limiting civil marriages to opposite-sex couples violates the equal protection clause;
• Whether or not  denying same-sex couples the right to marry amounts to a denial of their right to life and/or liberty without due process of law;
• Whether or not sex-based conceptions of marriage violate religious freedom;
• Whether or not a determination that Articles 1 and 2 of the Family Code are unconstitutional must necessarily carry with it the conclusion that Articles 46(4) and 55(6) of the Family Code (re: homosexuality  and lesbianism as grounds for annulment and legal separation) are also unconstitutional; and
• Whether or not the parties are entitled to the reliefs prayed for.

Falcis and petitioners-in-intervention LGBTS Christian Church, Inc. Reverend Crescencio "Ceejay" Agbayani, Jr., Marlon Felipe, and Maria Arlyn "Sugar" Ibañez, the OSG, and intervenor Atty. Fernando Perito will each be given 20 minutes to present their arguments on the above-mentioned issues. — MDM, GMA News