FACTS:

Lando de Yema was born as a male. However, throughout his teenage years, De Yema had
always felt like he was a 'woman trapped in a man's body.' De Yema’s personal sentiment about his
sexuality was even reflected by the way he dressed. At the same time, he claims that he feels
romantic attraction towards boys. Lando De Yema was studying a law degree in the University of
Santo Tomas, where he met Rudy Tuderde in one of his classes. Eventually, De Yema fell in love with
Rudy. But since Rudy only likes females, Lando was dumped. Due to this experience, De Yema
became devastated and desperate to become a full-fledged woman. Hence, De Yema went to a
doctor to consult about changing his sex. The doctor explained to him that transforming from male to
female is definitely possible but the process would be difficult. De Yema soon went through a series
of regimens of hormonal intervention, via intake of hormonal pills, to render more pronounced the
secondary characteristics of femininity in his body. However, he was not satisfied with the effects of
the hormonal pills. Thus, he saved money for a sexual reassignment operation in Bangkok, Thailand,
which turned out to be successful. When De Yema returned to the Philippines, he asked the civil
registrar to change the entry of his gender in his Certificate of Live Birth from "male" to "female” in
lieu of his sex reassignment. However, the civil registrar refused his request.

ISSUE:
Whether or not Lando De Yema may be allowed to change his sex in his birth certificate?

RULING:
No. The civil registrar was right in denying the petition of Lando De Yema of changing his sex
in his birth certificate. In one of the decided cases of the Supreme Court, Rommel Silverio v Republic
of the Philippines, the Court emphasized that no law allows the change of entry in the birth
certificate as to sex on the ground of sex reassignment.
It was further stated in the same case that under Section 5 of Act 3753 or the Civil Register
Law, the sex of a person is determined at birth, visually done by the birth attendant, either the
physician or midwife, through examination of the genitals of the newborn. The discernment of a
person’s sex made at the time of his or her birth, and recorded at his or her birth certificate, if not
attended by error, is considered as immutable or fixed.
Moreover, in that said case, the law defined the status of a person to include all his personal
qualities and relations, including birth, as something that is more or less permanent in nature, and
not ordinarily terminable at his own will.
At the same time, words such as "male" and "female" do not include persons who have
undergone sex reassignment. It is an established rule that words not defined in a statute are to be
given their common and ordinary meaning in the absence of a contrary legislative intent.
Lastly, in relation with the rule in statutory construction, "words that are employed in a
statute which had at the time a well-known meaning are presumed to have been used in that sense
unless the context compels to the contrary." Therefore, the term "sex", which remained the same
since 1900s under the Civil Register Law, is something that cannot be altered through surgery nor
allows a post-operative male-to-female transsexual to be included in the category "female."
In the case at bench, Lando De Yema may have succeeded in altering the physical features of
his body through sex reassignment surgery that rendered him a woman’s physique but the same
cannot be reflected on his Certificate of Live Birth, taking into consideration the Court’s prior ruling in
the case of Silverio, that no law authorizes the change of entry as to sex in the civil registry. Thus,
there is no legal basis for Lando De Yema’s petition for the correction or change of the entries in his
birth certificate.

No. Lando De Yema erred in his reliance on the Court’s decision in the case of Republic of
the Philippines v. Jennifer Cagandahan. In the aforementioned case, the court granted the Petition
for Correction of Entries in Birth Certificate in relation with the name and sex of Jennifer Cagandahan.
This is due to the fact that she was suffering a medical condition of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
(CAH). It is a rare condition involving intersex anatomy, where the individual possessed both male
and female characteristics.
As stated by the court, where a person is biologically or naturally intersex, the determining
factor in his or her gender classification would be what the individual, having reached the age of
majority, and with good reason, thinks of his or her sex. On the part of Cagandahan, he viewed
himself as a man, which is biologically supported by the fact that he had high levels of androgen or
male hormones. According to the court, the sexual development in cases of intersex persons makes
the gender classification at birth inconclusive. Hence, it can be subject to change. Also, the court held
that a change of name or sex is not a matter of right but of judicial discretion. In this case, the court
gave respect to Cagandahan’s congenital condition and his mature decision to be a male. It is clear
that in the case at bar, Lando De Yema could not be granted the same right as Cagandahan, for the
means he employed in changing his sex was through a surgical procedure, hence, artificial.