The Exorcist Fr. Jose C. Syquia, head of the Office of Exorcism of the Archdiocese of Manila By ANGELO G.

GARCIA, RONALD S. LIM, and JASER MARASIGAN October 30, 2011, 8:00am

MANILA, Philippines When Fr. Jose Francisco C. Syquia says hes out there fighting demons, he literally means it. From his offices at the basement of the San Carlos Seminarys Lay Foundation building along EDSA, the 44-year-old priest receives calls from all over the country, seeking his help as the head of the Office of Exorcism of the Archdiocese of Manila. Throughout his six years in the office, Syquia says hes seen it all heads rotating 360 degrees, projectile vomiting, the possessed crawling across high ceilings and that hes learned to face them all without batting an eyelash. This stoic demeanor, however, is something that hes had to cultivate over the decade that hes been holding the job as Manilas only exorcist. It wasnt even a job he sought out in the first place the task was handed to him as a young priest serving the parish of Quiapo. I never really thought that I would be entering this ministry. Takot ako sa multo. Lalong takot ako sa mga demonyo, he recalls. But when I was assigned to Quiapo I had my first case of a person under grave oppression. He was about to lose his mind. That first exorcism was a harrowing ordeal, he says. While he had

been initially doubtful of the authenticity of the case, he was quickly convinced when the person began to manifest paranormal powers once he started praying. When that first exorcism was successful, it wasnt long before people started coming to him with their supernatural problems. Cases of possession would prove to be so plentiful that it spurred the creation of the Office of Exorcism in 2005. Since its foundation, the Office has encountered almost a thousand cases of demonic possession, with three to four cases tackled on a daily basis. But as frightening as these numbers may be, or as horrible as some of these exorcisms may seem Fr. Syquia recalls a case where a person was able to bend backwards and have his head touch his feet this is hardly the sole point or purpose of the rite of exorcism. More than just casting out evil spirits, exorcism seeks to heal whatever rifts exists between the person and God. In this 60 Minutes interview that vacillated from being chilling to uplifting, Fr. Syquia traces his own journey from the occult back to Catholicism, the occupational hazards of being on the front lines of a daily battle for the lives and souls of the Filipino flock, the authenticity of the many movies that have capitalized on the mystery surrounding the rite of exorcism, and the constant vigilance needed to keep the Devil at bay. Many people deal with the spirit world without asking for direction or discernment. They just call upon spirits, without discerning that the Devil can appear as the soul of a dead person, he says. Even the first apparitions of Jesus Christ that St. Ignatius Loyola had were demonic. And hes a master of

discernment! Imagine that, even the saints could be fooled! (Ronald S. Lim)

Sex change and sex reassignment - Katrina Legarda

KATS EYE | KATRINA LEGARDA Posted at 06/03/2009 1:18 AM | Updated as of 06/03/2009 1:19 AM In the space of one year, the Supreme Court promulgated two decisions on similar issues: whether a man can become a woman. In one case, the man lost; in another, the man is now a woman. Both cases were brought to the Supreme Court when the Office of the Solicitor General appealed lower court decisions granting the changes requested by both men in their birth certificates. Mr. Rommel Silverio, the 2007 case decided by the Supreme Court, won in the lower court. He filed a petition to change his name and his gender in his birth certificate. He alleged in his petition that he was born in the City of Manila on April 4, 1962. His name was registered as "Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio" in his birth certificate. His sex was registered as "male." He further alleged that he is a male transsexual, that is, "anatomically male but feels, thinks and acts as a female" and that he had always identified himself with girls since childhood. Feeling trapped in a mans body, he consulted several doctors in the United States. He underwent psychological examination, hormone treatment and breast augmentation. His attempts to transform himself to a "woman" culminated on January 27, 2001 when he underwent sex reassignment surgery in Bangkok, Thailand. From then on, Rommel lived as a female and was in fact engaged to be married. He then sought to have his name in his birth certificate changed from "Rommel Jacinto" to "Mely," and his sex from "male" to "female." While he won in the lower court, the Supreme Court reversed. The Court said that only certain information could be changed in the Civil Register, and that gender, or the sex of the person, was not one of these things. Moreover, there is no such special law in the Philippines governing sex reassignment and its effects. The Court went on to rue the lack of law, but then expounded that the changes sought by Rommel would have serious and wide-ranging legal and public policy consequences. Rommel wanted to marry, and was in fact engaged to be married. Marriage, the Court said, one of the most sacred social institutions, is a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman. One of its essential requisites is the legal capacity of the contracting parties who must be a male and a female. To grant the changes sought by Rommel will greatly alter the laws on marriage and family relations. It will allow the union of a man with another man who has undergone sex reassignment (a male-to-female post-operative transsexual). And as we all know, even in the United States, very few states allow same-sex marriage.

I wonder if Rommel had just tried to change his name, by way of correcting his first name, would he have ever been in the law books. You can correct your first name, you see, just by going to the Office of the Civil registrar, paying a fee, and pointing out that his new first name or nickname has been habitually and continuously used [by him] and that he has been publicly know by that first name or nickname in the community. I will not wonder about the other way that most transsexuals resort to in this country, as that way is, well, illegal. In the 2008 case of Jennifer Cagandahan, on the other hand, the Supreme Court allowed the correction of Jennifers birth certificate so that her sex or gender was changed from female to male, and her name from Jennifer to Jeff. This was because Jennifer had the very rare condition known as Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia or CAH. When she was born, it was highly likely that what the nurse or midwife could see was her female genital organs. As she grew older, however, her disorder caused the early or inappropriate appearance of male characteristics such as deepening of the voice, facial hair, and failure to menstruate at puberty. About 1 in 10,000 to 18,000 children are born with CAH. The Supreme Court found that during the twentieth century, medicine adopted the term intersexuality to apply to human beings who cannot be classified as either male or female. Intersex individuals are treated in different ways by different cultures. In most societies, intersex individuals have been expected to conform to either a male or female gender role. Since the rise of modern medical science in Western societies, some intersex people with ambiguous external genitalia have had their genitalia surgically modified to resemble either male or female genitals. More commonly, an intersex individual is considered as suffering from a disorder which is almost always recommended to be treated, whether by surgery and/or by taking lifetime medication in order to mold the individual as neatly as possible into the category of either male or female. In this case, Jennifer underwent psychiatric therapy and treatment and had decided that she is a man and he thinks of himself as a male. Jeff had let nature take its course and had not taken unnatural steps to arrest or interfere with what he was born with. And accordingly, he has already ordered his life to that of a male. Jeff could have undergone treatment and taken steps, like taking lifelong medication, to force his body into the categorical mold of a female but he did not. He chose not to do so. Nature has instead taken its due course in Jeffs development to reveal more fully his male characteristics.

WHEN SHE BECOMES HE (ON WHY IT WAS GRANTED)

Several months ago we printed an article concerning the failed attempt of a male petitioner to change the entry of his name and sex from male to female in order to reflect the result of a sex reassignment surgery. The Supreme Court in the case Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio vs. Republic, G.R. No. 174689, October 22, 2007, held that there is no such special law in the Philippines governing sex reassignment and its effects. It was emphasized that under the Civil Register Law, a birth certificate is a historical record of the facts as they existed at the time of birth. Thus, the sex of a person is determined at birth, visually done by the birth attendant (the physician or midwife) by examining the genitals of the infant. Considering that there is no law legally recognizing sex reassignment, the determination of a person's sex made at the time of his or her birth, if not attended by error, is immutable. The words male and female in everyday understanding do not include persons who have undergone sex reassignment. Furthermore, 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. Since the statutory language of the Civil Register Law was enacted in the early 1900s and remains unchanged, it cannot be argued that the term sex as used then is something alterable through surgery or something that allows a post-operative male-to-female transsexual to be included in the category female. More than ten years ago our country had a promising young runner who had the potentials of becoming the next Lydia de Vega but because of her predominantly male features, she was not spared from the accusations of cheating. Later on it turned out that the athlete had two external sex organs, one male and the other female. Just recently, the Supreme Court decided on the case Republic v. Cagandahan, GR No. 166676, September 12, 2008, which case this time involve a person diagnosed to have Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, a rare medical condition where afflicted persons possess both male and female characteristics. The said case now pave the way for an individual to have her female name and gender changed to male. As posted in the Supreme Court website, in a 13-page decision penned by Senior Justice Leonardo A. Quisumbing, the Court affirmed the January 12, 2005 decision of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 33 of Siniloan, Laguna granting the Petition for Correction of Entries in Birth Certificate of Jennifer B. Cagandahan to change her name to Jeff Cagandahan and her gender to male. Data from the same Supreme Court website indicate that the petitioner was born in 1981 and was registered as female and developed secondary male characteristics while growing up and was diagnosed to have CAH. At age 13, the petitioners ovarian structures had minimized there was no breast or menstrual development. To support her petition, Cagandahan presented Dr. Michael Sionzon of the Department of Psychiatry, University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital, who explained that that Cagandahan genetically is female but because her body secretes male hormones, her female organs did not develop normally, thus has organs of both male and female. The Court, in deciding the case, considered the compassionate calls for recognition of the various degrees of intersex as variations which should not be subject to outright denial. It noted that Cagandahan thinks of himself as a male and considering that his body produces high levels of male hormones (androgen), there is preponderant biological support for considering him as being male. It stressed that Cagandahan has let nature take its course in her development to reveal more fully his male characteristics. [T]he Court will not dictate on respondent concerning a matter so innately private as ones sexuality and lifestyle preferences, much less on whether or not to undergo medical treatment to reverse the male tendency due to CAH...We do no more than give respect to (1) the diversity of nature; and (2) how an individual deals with what nature has handed out. In other words, we respect respondents congenital condition and his mature decision to be a male. Life is already difficult for the ordinary person. We cannot but respect how respondent deals with his unordinary state and thus help make his life easier, the Court said. The Court ruled that a change of name is not a matter of right but of judicial discretion, to be exercised in the light of the reasons and the consequences that will follow. The latest case decided by the Supreme Court without a doubt has altered to some extent the standard that the sex of a person is determined at birth, visually done by the birth attendant by examining the genitals of the infant and that the determination of a person's sex made at the time of his or her birth, if not attended by error, is immutable.

--Atty, cristifill baluma Sunday, January 25, 2009

Womb for Hire - Part 1

By Raissa Robles, Newsbreak Posted at 06/16/2009 11:35 AM | Updated as of 06/16/2009 11:47 AM The story almost reads like a fairy tale: no sooner had the child been born than it was taken from its mother and whisked to a land far, far away. Except that in this case, the infant was flown as hand-carried baggage from Manila to Bangkok, swaddled in the arms of a Danish man who had bought and prepaid for the baby boy. Far from being a tale of enchantment, what took place seven months ago in October was the first ever commercially transacted case of surrogacy in the Philippines. It was arranged by a foreign company between a Filipino married woman and a male gay couple from Malaysia and Denmark. The egg is actually her own, Michael Ho, owner of Singapore-based Asian Surrogates, told Newsbreak. He said the woman, whom he declined to name, became pregnant in a pretty straight forward manner through intrauterine insemination or IUI. The sperm is inserted into the womb of the surrogate and she gets pregnant, (with) no physical contact with the male client, he assured. Because the client donated his own sperm, he is the baby boy's legitimate father and therefore has the legal right to take the infant out of the country, he said. The mother's prior consent is part of the transaction, he added. The father took him back to Thailand because even though he's Danish, he was working in Thailand, he said. He said the gay couple paid Asian Surrogates at least 45,000 Singapore dollars or P1.4 million pesos for the service. Of this amount, roughly P715,074 or 22,000 Singapore dollars went to the Filipina for renting out her womb and providing her eggs. The sum would roughly take her 5.4 years to earn on minimum wage. Eight other Filipino women are eagerly waiting in line to provide a similar service, Ho said, expressing his satisfaction. I have to say, the Filipinas, they are all very helpful, very enthusiastic. I find the Filipina excellent as a surrogate mother. However, they all appeared to be media shy since all refused to be interviewed for this article. The transaction went unnoticed in the Philippines. Social welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said in an interview that she was not aware that commercial surrogacy was being practiced in the country. Even if it was, she said there was no law to ban it. Womb Service-Provider Ho's company has been operating for four years now as a womb-service provider and claims to have clients in 15 countries including the Philippines, Canada, US, France, Belgium and Germany.

As a womb service-provider, Asian Surrogates is pretty up front with its array of services and fees. It claims to handpick surrogates. They have to be non-smokers, non-drinkers, bright, healthy and attractive, below 30 but married or with a partner, and a tested baby-maker with at least one child born the natural way. Unlike similar companies in India which advertise their surrogates are at least five foot three inches tall, Ho's company imposes no height requirement. However, he stresses that his girls do not change their minds, (are) reliable, caring and ethical, meaning, they do not keep a couple's baby for their own gain. The straightforward transaction discards any notion of romantic love or lust between the surrogate and her male client. Still, Ho believes love motivates his handpicked girls: They want to help their own families with the fees they earned and their husbands, partners or families understand and support this. His company arranges both the traditional and gestational forms of surrogacy. The first method is illustrated by the Danish national's case, where his sperm was mixed with the surrogate's own eggs through artificial insemination. The gestational method is harder, riskier and costlier. Here, the surrogate merely acts as the host. Eggs from another woman are mixed with sperm in a laboratory using a process called in vitro fertilization. The resulting embryo popularly known as a test tube baby - is then planted inside the surrogate's womb. The traditional or natural surrogacy, if done in Manila, costs at least 45,000 Singapore dollars (US$30,380.80). This is easily thrice more expensive than in India, but far cheaper than in the United States. Der Spiegel magazine, in a September 25, 2008 piece called The Life Factory, estimated that commercial surrogacy in India costs US$10,000, and between US$50,000 to US$80,000 in the US. (See http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,580209-3,00.html) Costs in Manila could go up, though, in case of medical complications such as the loss of reproductive organ. Ho's company justifies its price. This includes the surrogate's fee, her clothing allowance, food, housing, travel, insurance, medical bills and loss of wages. It also includes chauffeuring the client parents around and housing them. Looking at the lengthy menu of its services, the firm is in effect practicing medical tourism in the Philippines. The fee is paid in six gives, with an initial down payment of 5,000 Singapore dollars upon signing the surrogacy agreement. By the third month of pregnancy, two-thirds would have been paid up. The company makes no mention what would happen to the baby in case the client fails to pay all. Ho has a separate company, Ivimed, that buys from egg donors at 6,000 Singapore dollars per retrieval. The fee is higher if the donor has a doctorate or a special talent like in music or math. A client pays 13,500 Singapore dollars for the egg harvesting and other expenses such as egg donor screening, travel, housing and food. Ivimed claims the harvesting won't hurt, though some pelvic heaviness, soreness or

cramps are common. Interestingly, the company provides a 250,000 Singapore dollars insurance in case of medical emergency. Ho told Newsbreak that the harvested unused eggs are frozen in a doctor's clinic, either here (in Singapore) or in Malaysia. The eggs belong to the girls, not to his firm. We take care of our girls, don't worry, he said