In favor or not?

Divorce: To legalize or not?

Marriage is the most important event to any couple. It serves as the bond to the family they are planning to build. A family consisting of husband, wife and a child.  These three elements compose a family. Each member functions to keep the ties and to make it fulfilling. What happened when the husband become tired of the relationship? What if the mother found another man? What happened to the child who receives the negative effects of a failed family relationship?

The only legal recourse available to Filipinos who want to exit a failed union is through an annulment or a petition for legal separation. It has different grounds and end results. Under the Family Code of the Philippines, a marriage may be annulled if any of the following grounds exist: lack of parental consent, psychological incapacity, fraud, marriage by force or intimidation, inability to consummate the marriage and if one party has contracted a sexually-transmissible disease. The 1987 Family Code was introduced under the presidency of Corazon Aquino.Those seeking annulment must undergo a mental exam, testify in court and sometimes even claim they or their spouse entered the union while afflicted by a psychological disorder. The process can cost at least P250,000 and take anywhere from one to 10 years given the congestion in Philippine court dockets. Meanwhile, a petition for legal separation requires any of the following grounds: repeated physical abuse from partner, coercion to change religious or political affiliation, attempt of respondent to corrupt petitioner or their child to engage in prostitution, respondent meted with imprisonment of more than 6 years, drug addiction of spouse, lesbianism or homosexuality, bigamous marriage, sexual infidelity or perversion, attempt against the life of spouse and abandonment without justifiable cause for more than a year. If the petition is granted, the couple may live separately from each other. The conjugal partnership is also dissolved, but the marriage bonds are still in effect. Annulment also allows remarriage but legal separation does not.

The Divorce Bill, or House Bill 7303 ("An Act Instituting Absolute Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage in the Philippines."), passed with 134 votes in favor and 57 against, with two abstentions. The House of Representatives approved on a third and final reading the proposed law, which would allow Filipinos to remarry after being granted a divorce abroad. This divorce bill would mean a court ruling could dissolve a marriage if it is deemed "irremediably broken", allowing individuals to remarry another person of the opposite sex. The bill would also give courts the power to decide custody "in accordance with the best interests" of minors. Children under seven could not be separated from their mothers unless there were "compelling reasons" to do so. Philippines are considered to have close ties with Catholic Church. Along with Vatican, they are the only countries in the world where divorce is not legal. House Bill 7303 aims to make divorce more accessible to a wider range of couples seeking liberty from irreparable marriage. It provides that the "State shall assure that the court proceedings for the grant of absolute divorce shall be affordable and inexpensive, particularly for court assisted litigants and petitioners." The proposed measure also pushes for pro-women legislation as the bill notes that in most cases of irreparable marriages it is the wife who is entitled to liberation from an abusive relationship. The status of the children of divorced couples also takes preference. A joint petition for divorce should include a plan for parenthood that details support, parental authority, custody and living arrangements of the common children. For the legitimate and adopted children of divorced spouses, they will retain their legal status after the petition for divorce is granted. A child born or conceived within 300 days after filing for divorce is also considered a legitimate child, except when the basis for divorce is marital infidelity of the wife. The bill also proposes that divorced spouses shall have the right to remarry.

The final decision for this bill is still in the hands of the president. He may approve it or veto it. The president’s spokesperson, Harry Roque, already announced the side of the president to this bill, according to him even if the presidents have a failed marital relationship with former wife Zimmerman, he does not support the Divorce Bill. While the Senate President, Koko Pimentel, adding more grounds to annulments rather than passing the bill will be more appropriate.  The stance of the bill is still unknown. It is being push to be a law for about 20 years but until now it is not been approved.

I partially support the lawmakers who authored this bill. Making it easy to settle the family’s problem also helps the child to secure its right. Annulment is a long and costly process that forces the couple with problem to seek legal separation rather than annulment. Its deportment on the bicameral system is still unsupported. To be able to make a bill a counterpart bill shall be filed but no one in the senate is interested in doing it. It is a sign that we, Filipinos, really value the family ties we have. Pros and cons must be exhibited to all especially the layman in order to give awareness and knowledge of its advantages and disadvantages.

My God...

President Rodrigo Duterte saying that “God is stupid”

The society is composed of organized group with same interests. The five institutions of society include the government and religion along with education, multiculturalism and economics. These social dimensions are directly related to one another even though they have individual functions on their own.

The past few months the President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement “What I said was your God is not my God because your God is stupid, my God has a lot of common sense” became the hot topic of not just in national setting but also reached the international. It happened to be controversial maybe because the highest power in the country is verbalizing own opinion about religion. Gauche sound to some Filipino and affront to many.

The separation of the state and the government has been inviolable. Everyone is entitled to have own belief to what religion they want to belong and to believe in. As much as what the President is trying to expound, he is merely expressing his own thought of what is his God. Any creature has different name they may call to what their “God” is. It just happened that the President is being criticized by his troublesome mouth since his candidacy in 2016. Every Filipino who voted and did not vote for him already observed this trait of him.

The church as the representation of the Supreme Being in the Earth has been reactive to what the President is saying. Being an institution of the society they are rational to criticize any foul sound against the Supreme Being or God they are pertaining to.

The initiative of the President to have a talk with the Catholic Bishop of the Philippines is still a sign of his respect and acceptance that he offended some Filipinos and undertakes that he would not make any statement against church in public.

Even if they are of different political views, the welfare of the Filipino society matters to the government and to the church. From the controversies of the reproductive laws to the divorce issues, each has its own distinct judgment.

I, being a citizen of the Philippines, hold high respect to my God, the ultimate being.

I comprehend the side of the President for the reason that there is Agnostic Theist individual, those who believe that there is God but uncertain of its existence. In the case of the President as he said that if you can show him a “selfie” with God that is the time that he will only believe of its existence. Anyone cannot impose of what to believe in merely because we have our own reasoning.

Teacher to LGBT

Analysis on LGBT Issues and the Importance of becoming Aware on it in our Profession

It is very important that the rights of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender will be equal to the rights of a person with straight sexual preferences. Like us, they are also a creation of God with life. They have the rights to live and receive no discrimination. But I just want to emphasize that what they are, should reflect on their attitudes. For example, some LGBTs are very obvious of their acts that are not acceptable to many. As per my opinion, it is always proper to do well in order in order for us to be accepted by others. So what if you are cross-dressed, will it affect your compassion and values towards your parents (just like the grand winner of Ms. Q&A of Showtime)? So what if you are a gay or lesbian, will it affect your competencies of becoming one of the top sellers of perfume brand in the country (just like Joel Cruz)? Can somebody generalize that you are a murderer just because you are bisexuals? Of course not!

I believed that everybody is created by God with differences. What make an LGBT different to other humans are just their sexual preferences. God already planned of what you are becoming to be before you see the world.

As a teacher or educator, it is always important that we value the life of others because the way we react most probably will be the way of our students on how should they react on things also. For example, if you are respecting the LGBT, they will also respect them. But if you show them that you are opposing of the LGBTs, most probably majority of the class will agree on your ideas against the LGBTs.

We cannot say what kind of students we will have in our class, straight or LGBTs, so it is relevant to show equality and no discrimination. Nowadays, pre-schoolers are keen observer. Most of them can differentiate who is gay or not by actions alone. Explaining to pre-schoolers the status of LGBT in a simpler way will brighten their mind that all humans are equal.

Peace Education and Interrelationship of Dimensions of Society

“The Ladder of Peace”.

I used the image of a ladder to signify that in order to achieve the highest level of peace in every mankind you have to move from the base. I believed that it is essential that we need to achieve first self-respect or personal peace for us to move to the next step of The Ladder of Peace before we learn or we prepare ourselves in accepting other factors like respect for others, respect for other groups, respect for other nations.

I used arrows to enfold what harmony or coordination each step may belong.

Peace does not mean absence of conflict, let us put in mind that it is the ability to handle conflict in a peaceful way.

“The Box of Cultural Social Dimensions”.

I identified six dimensions namely: technological, economic, political, social, shared values and beliefs.

Technological dimensions include the system starting from the era of gathering and hunting to agricultural revolution to the invention of different power like nuclear power. The new technology produced food surplus that allowed and encouraged the development of city states, division of labor and other revolutionary changes in the other five dimensions.

Economic dimensions, simpler societies produced and allocated wealth on the basis of family obligations and without recourse to using money. From history it started from barter to state redistribution to aristocracy to new occupational categories.

Political dimensions relate to power and influence. With increased complexity, the distance between the people with the least to the most power widened. In contrast to a widespread ideology of equality and democracy, the real politics in complex societies is very hierarchical and continues to become more so.

Social dimensions refer to patterns of interaction and social organizations. Favoring relatives or nepotism is increasingly being seen to be a negative and undesirable mode of allocating social and economic rules.

Shared values dimensions refer to the application of judgements such as good or bad, beautiful or ugly, and right or wrong.

Beliefs dimensions are a clear pattern of reduction of different supernatural beings. From belief in many Gods to one God to no God or atheism.

            The dimensional approach to understanding society is that they permeate the whole of culture. From the largest group or country, down through communities, to simple dyads all six dimensions are present. Removal of a dimension means the whole culture is not there.

            An important characteristic in all these changes is that the introduction of something new does not automatically remove the old. Things accumulate. Only if an old thing is dysfunctional and cannot contribute to, or hinders, survival and growth, will it be dropped.

            Clustering means that some theorists (Marx and Weber) differ in causing changes. Marx saw in the foundation (bottom two), technological and economy, as causing changes in the other four. Weber saw changes in the top two, shared values and beliefs, as causing changes in the other four.