Gregorio Miguel Pallugna
IN recent months, much talk has been heard about women’s rights especially now that Sen. Leila de Lima, who is in the news almost everyday, has been repeatedly invoking her rights as a woman in order to block the incessant jabs against her in Congress. Indeed, it is welcome news that the rights of women are being fought now more vigorously and widely than ever. But amid all these developments in the continuing fight for the rights of women, I remember my law professor before who never ran out of jokes about his mother-in-law and about how men are so often abused by women without any recourse.
I am fortunately not an abused man. But, I cannot speak for my married friends who want to think that they are being abused by not being allowed to share their glorious selves to other “needy” women. On a more serious note though, it is undeniable that a lot of men unfortunately do not really know their rights as much as women know theirs. One of these men is Cesar.
Cesar had a girlfriend with whom he already broke up several years ago. After the break-up, Cesar met Dianne who eventually became his wife. Cesar and Dianne produced three lovely children and sought for a better future in the United States of America. Their children went to a good school and they lived a happy and peaceful life there. That was until Cesar learned that he could not come home to the Philippines because of a standing warrant of arrest against him for economic abuse under the Anti-Violence against Women and their Children Act or VAWC. His ex-girlfriend apparently got pregnant with an unknown father after she and Cesar broke up, and for the first time after several years, she pointed to Cesar as the child’s father.
Cesar is sure that the child is not his and is willing to have a DNA test but the ex-girlfriend refuses to submit. Cesar could come home and post bail but he fears that if he does so he may be prevented from going back abroad where his young family is now based. He is torn between living a happy life with his family abroad, and coming home to see his parents and siblings and attending important family events here at the risk of not being able to return to his wife and kids. Cesar, like many other men, are unsure of his rights.
The right of illegitimate children or their mothers to claim support is premised on the fact that the man from whom support is being asked is the biological father of the child. This must be an established fact and a man who is being accused of being the father of a certain child has the right to deny this imputation. And if he does so, he cannot be demanded to give support or be sued for any criminal liability for failure to give support. Even if his name and signature is found in the birth certificate of the child, he is not considered the father of the child until he admits it or until there is a Judicial Declaration of Paternity which can be issued only after the child or the child’s mother files an action in court. The man does not need to prove that he is not the father. It is the woman and the child who need to prove that he is. A person is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty, and that includes innocence of siring a child.
In the case of Dolina vs Vallecera [G.R. No. 182367, December 15, 2010], the Supreme Court dismissed the criminal complaint for VAWC against the putative father and explained that “To be entitled to legal support, [the complainant] must, in proper action, first establish the filiation of the child, if the same is not admitted or acknowledged. Since Dolina’s demand for support for her son is based on her claim that he is Vallecera’s illegitimate child, the latter is not entitled to such support if he had not acknowledged him, until Dolina shall have proved his relation to him.The child’s remedy is to file through her mother a judicial action against Vallecera for compulsory recognition. If filiation is beyond question, support follows as matter of obligation. In short, illegitimate children are entitled to support and successional rights but their filiation must be duly proved.”
Just like Cesar, Dolina was accused of being the father of a child he denied to be his. Dolina’s name and signature even appeared on the birth certificate of the child but he denied having signed the same. The Supreme Court relieved him of any civil liability for support or any criminal liability for economic abuse under the VAWC law, on the sole basis that no man can be accused of failure to give support to a child without the child proving the man’s paternity in court first. Cesar invoked Dolina’s case and asked for the dismissal of the charge against him. He is now waiting for the decision of the court.
If you are ever in a situation where your “good looks” has earned you the unfortunate pleasure of being imputed as the father of a child that is not yours, remember Cesar and the Dolina case. Men have rights, too.
