THE Supreme Court has junked with finality a petition for same-sex marriage filed by lawyer Nicarod Jesus Falcis III, saying he and his co-petitioners failed to raise new arguments to warrant a reversal of the assailed decision.
“The Court resolved to deny with finality the said motion for reconsideration as no substantial arguments were presented to warrant the reversal of the questioned decision,” the High Court said in a notice sent to reporters on Monday.
“No further pleadings or motions will be entertained. Let entry of judgment be made immediately,” the SC added.
The en banc resolution was promulgated on December 10.
Last September, the en banc dismissed the same-sex marriage plea, saying that it is a matter best left for Congress to address.
The decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen also stated the petition was dismissed on account of “lack of standing of the petitioner as well as violation of the principle of hierarchy of courts and that it failed to raise actual, justiciable controversy.”
Justiciable means “capable of being decided by the court.”
Despite dismissing the petition then, the SC said it recognized the history of discrimination and marginalization faced by the LGBTQI community and said it may be time for Congress to tackle the issue.
In the September decision, the SC cited Falcis and co-counsel Darwin Angeles, Keisha Trina Guangko ,and Christopher Ryan Maranan liable for indirect contempt for what it said was “exploiting” the case for propaganda.
The petition filed three years ago sought to legalize same-sex marriage in the country and declare as unconstitutional provisions of the Family Code which defines and limits marriage as between a man and a woman, and to nullify portions of Articles 4.6 (4) and 55 (6) of the same Code which mentions lesbianism or homosexuality as grounds for annulment and legal separation.
