When Governments Assume Powers Outside Their Remit, Which Go Beyond National Interests and Constitutions, Legal Systems Become the Last Resort for Peaceful Resolution! What if these Legal Systems

are captured and agendized? Does the move of the Philippines Supreme Court to Recognize Pride Month, with funded activities, marginalize others and indicate a troubling direction for the legal system?

The Philippines legal system is modelled on the US legal system. Established in 1901, the Supreme Court is the highest legal body in land. Justices are required to have proven competence, integrity, probity, and independence.

I was rather surprised recently to see that the Philippines Supreme Court would recognize pride month on Tuesday 13 June 2023, repeating the 2022 pride event (2022 memorandum) that was then supported by Australian AID and the Asia Foundation¹!

Below is the 2023 memorandum, retrieved from Prof. Gatdula’s FB Page. [I was unable to find it on the court website; I have also been unable to find any 2023 published articles].

Pride month tarpaulins are ordered to be put in all court stations and on the Freedom Wall in every court station and office. Wearing of Pride shirts is encouraged. Expenses incurred are for liquidation. For strict compliance of all concerned. FB post link.

FB Link for Municipal Circuit Trial Court Branch 10 celebrations.

FB Link for Cebu City Hall of Justice. Note that comments have been limited.

The highest court in the land, and its offices, is bowing to woke agendas: publicly selecting one specific population group for recognition above all other societal groups? UA&P Dean of Law / Constitutional and International Law, Philosophy of Law Specialist, Jemy Gatdula puts it far better than I could ever hope to.

A community with likely 2-5% share of the Philippine population, a smaller share than the indigenous peoples (20%) and Muslims (10%), and yet one able to make universities, local government units, businesses, and even the Supreme Court itself feel obligated to pay homage to it can hardly be considered marginalized. The LGBTQIA++’s influence goes beyond the month of June: corporate policies, university courses, advertising, public parades, restaurants, and churches are compelled to adapt their facilities, even legislation or ordinances proposed or enacted. The LGBTQIA++ are practically extolled and celebrated every day all year round. That is not a marginalized community."

Is this proper? Will this not affect the Supreme Court’s objectivity and the public’s perception on its objectivity? Does this not show a bias on the part of the Supreme Court? Does this not violate free speech and freedom of religion, particularly of court employees and the legal profession in general?

The Congress may want to issue a Resolution, and the President, the IBP, and non-ideological law schools may want to issue a statement, expressing to the Supreme Court the possible impropriety of its act.

Jemy Gatdula

I share with full permission his two-part commentary on the Supreme Court celebrating pride month: Part 1, Part 2.

Pride Month is counterproductive to society. “Not everything that society — or a certain segment of society — wants or demands is automatically a human right. This is not an arbitrary human intervention that may be added to or subtracted from at will.”

I also provide his article on the moving left of the legal profession and the implications this has for society.

NEITHER LEFT NOR RIGHT BUT THE CONSTITUTION

It’s bad enough if lawyers, acting as officers of the court and not as public advocates acting as clients themselves, try to impose their ideology on their clients, parties before the court, or the judges themselves. The same goes for legal academics that, instead of educating law students on the fundamentals of the law, try to indoctrinate them instead on their favored ideology. It is all the more unfortunate if judges, with their significant power, responsibility, and prestige, would seek to impose their personal beliefs on lawyers that by practice, habit, and tradition defer to them with utter trust.

In this, the remedy is to look at the Constitution and its author — our people. The product of centuries, even millennia, of human experience, it would be good for our officials of the court to rely on the wisdom contained in such experience and work within palpably proven legal frameworks, rather than subjecting our people to the role of laboratory animals vulnerable to consequences we cannot even begin to imagine foreseeing.

All persons require equal treatment under and representation under law! These are topics not just for Filipinos, but to be considered by all persons concerned with justice worldwide.

1. A very interesting organization to look into, “initially founded in 1954 to undertake cultural and educational activities on behalf of the United States Government in ways not open to official U.S. agencies”. The Asia Foundation