ABS-CBNNews.com – Kat’s Eye – Katrina Legarda
In the space of one year, the Supreme Court promulgated two decisions on similar issues: whether a man can become a woman. In one case, the man lost; in another, the man is now a woman. Both cases were brought to the Supreme Court when the Office of the Solicitor General appealed lower court decisions granting the changes requested by both men in their birth certificates.
Mr. Rommel Silverio, the 2007 case decided by the Supreme Court, won in the lower court. He filed a petition to change his name and his gender in his birth certificate. He alleged in his petition that he was born in the City of Manila on April 4, 1962. His name was registered as “Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio” in his birth certificate. His sex was registered as “male.”