SC reminds judges, lawyers of gender-fair language rule

SUPREME COURT OF THE PHILIPPINES / STOCK

The Supreme Court has reminded judges and lawyers to use gender-fair language as it took exception to the sexist language used by a Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge and a prosecutor during court proceedings.

In a 16-page decision, the high court’s Second Division reversed and set aside the lower courts’ rulings and declared the marriage of petitioner Aiko Yokogawa-Tan with Jonnell Tan null and void after finding sufficient proof that the latter was psychologically incapacitated to fulfill his essential marital obligation.

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In the same ruling promulgated in October 2023 but made public only recently, the Supreme Court also took the opportunity to remind judicial officers to be circumspect in their language after it observed that both the judge and prosecutor in the case used nongender-fair language.

In the decision of the RTC, which dismissed Yokogawa-Tan’s petition for insufficiency of evidence, the Supreme Court noted the ruling included a statement made by the petitioner on the witness stand, which said, “The marriage came first before I found out that he has a child with the other because I know that he has a girlfriend, I didn’t realize that they really had a baby.”

In its decision, the RTC stated that: “Believing that the respondent had not been faithful to her, despite knowing fully well that the latter had another girlfriend other than her prior to their marriage, here comes the petitioner, praying to this Court that her marriage to the respondent be declared null and void on the ground of psychological incapacity of the respondent under Article 36 of the New Family Code.”

According to the Supreme Court, the wording implied that the petitioner was at fault and should not be afforded relief for marrying Tan knowing the latter had an affair.

The high court likewise noted that the decision painted Tan’s infidelity as a competition between two women when it said, “Both women being pregnant, it became a ‘contest’ as to who should win the ‘guy.’ The petitioner appears to have won when she got the blessings [sic] of the respondent’s parents to marry her.”

The following questions were also asked by the judge and the prosecutor: “So you’re the winner? So it appears that you just forced him into marriage, is that what it means?”

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“Together, the foregoing reinforces the trope that women are out to entrap men into marriage. The disparaging language shifts the blame on the woman for marrying the unfaithful man after getting pregnant as if society did not stigmatize single mothers,” the Supreme Court said in the decision penned by Acting Chief Justice Marvic Leonen.