House Bill No. 9555, or The Cagandahan Law, has been filed in the House of Representatives to simplify the process to change entries in the legal documents of intersex Filipinos.
In truth, the Supreme Court of the Philippines already released its position on this in 2008, when – in a decision on the Republic of the Philippines v. Jennifer Cagandahan (G.R. No. 166676) – it stated that when a person is “biologically or naturally intersex, the determining factor in his gender classification would be what the individual… having reached the age of majority, with good reason thinks of his/her sex”.
However, according to Rep. Geraldine Roman in the explanatory note as she filed the HB 9555, “to date, while intersex people celebrate the court decision, most of them cannot avail of the remedy themselves as they still need to undergo the costly and tedious court litigation.”
This bill, stressed Roman, “aims to rectify this oversight by providing a straightforward and accessible legal process for intersex individuals to change their sex and first names in the civil register without the need for a judicial order.”
If this bill is passed, now only the “concerned city or municipal registrar or the consul general shall have the authority to change, without a judicial order, the sex in the civil register of an intersex person upon proving that he or she is an intersex based on his or her primary and/or secondary sex characteristics… provided that the changing of sex and/or first name shall be made de jure applicable to intersex people of legal age due to the inborn nature of their medical condition.”
The bill is specific on the qualifications of people who may apply, i.e.:
- An intersex person
- At least 18 years old
A notarized application may be filed with the local civil registry office of the city or municipality where the record is kept; or – for those who already live away from where their birth documents were first lodged – with the local civil registry office of their current domicile, which is expected to coordinate with the record-keeper of the original documents of the person who filed. All applications may be filed online.
Violators may be penalized with imprisonment of six to 12 months, and/or a fine ranging from ₱10,000 to ₱100,000.
No counterpart bill has been filed in the Senate yet.
