Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
CAGANDAHAN
GR No. 166676, September 12, 2008
DOCTRINE:
Whether or not the trial court erred in ordering the correction of entries in
the birth certificate of Cagandahan to change her sex or gender from female
to male on the ground of her medical condition known as Congenital Adrenal
Hyperplasia (CAH), and her name from Jennifer to Jeff.
RULING:
No. Citing the doctrine abovegiven, the Supreme Court held that in
the absence of evidence that respondent is an incompetent and in the
absence of evidence to show that classifying respondent as male will harm
other members of society who are equally entitled to protection under the
law, the Court affirms as valid and justified the respondent’s position and his
personal judgment of being a male.
ISSUE:
Summary proceedings provided under Rule 108 and Article 412 of the
Civil Code maybe used only to correct clerical, spelling, typographical and
other innocuous errors in the Civil Registry. Substantial or contentious
alterations may be allowed only in adversarial proceedings, in which all
interested parties are impleaded and due process is observed.
Where the effect of a correction of an entry in a civil registry will
change the status of a person from “legitimate” to “illegitimate,” the same
cannot be granted in summary proceedings. The changes sought by
respondent were substantial, thus, an adversarial proceeding is essential in
order to fully thresh out the allegations in respondent’s petition. Sarah Zita
and her purported parents should have been parties to the proceeding.
After all, it would affect her legitimacy as well as her successional and other
rights.