Difference between a man and a woman
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:40:00 10/09/2008
A lawyer was reported to have said that the law on concubinage and adultery is unfair to women. (“Pack up for Cirio, Gabby buries dad,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 10/1/08) This opinion is widespread.
I hope this letter will help make the public understand the rationale for the law as it stands today.
It is the woman who gets pregnant and who delivers the child. So you can always be sure of the maternity of the child but not of its paternity.
The husband cannot always be sure that he is its father, but there is always that conclusive presumption that he is. Even if it is public knowledge that the mother has been sleeping with the family driver and the child looks like the latter, the poor husband is conclusively presumed to be its father and bound to the obligation of support. Unfair, isn’t it?
Society does maintain double standards because of this fundamental difference between man and woman. And the Philippines goes further and enthrones the woman on a pedestal, according her more honor and respect than other cultures.
The proposed Gender Equality Law will be basically flawed because men and women by nature can never be equal. For instance, infidelity by a woman can never be equal to infidelity by a man. As a Spanish legal thinker said, “A wife can give the husband a child without him, but he cannot give her a child without her.”
It is unfortunate that Congress today has only mental pygmies.
RENE TORRES (via email)
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