ROMMEL JACINTO DANTES SILVERIO, petitioner,

vs.
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, respondent.

G.R. No. 174689 October 22, 2007

Corona, J.:

Facts:
Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio, born male, is transsexual. He “became” a woman via hormone
treatment, breast augmentation in the US, and sex reassignment surgery in Thailand.

Later, she got engaged to Richard Edel, an American. Silverio then sought to change her name
and sex in her birth certificate to “Mely” and “female”, respectively.

The RTC of Manila decided in favor of Silverio, ordering the civil registrar to change the entries.

However, the OSG (Republic) filed a petition to the CA, claiming that there was no law allowing
the change of entries in the birth certificate due to sex alteration.

The CA ruled in favor of the Republic, saying that the RTC’s decision lacked a legal basis.

Silverio then came to the SC, citing Arts. 407-413 of the Civil Code, Rules 103 and 108 of the
Rules of Court, and RA 9048.

Issue:
Should the court allow the change of name?

Held:
No. The SC said that considering that there is no law recognizing sex re-assignment, the
determination of a person’s sex at the time of birth, if not attended by error, is immutable. It held
that “while petitioner may have succeeded in altering his body and appearance through the
intervention of modern surgery, no law authorizes the change of entry as to sex in the civil registry
for that reason. There is no special law in the country governing sex reassignment and its effect.
This is fatal to petitioner’s cause.”

The Court said that the change in gender sought by petitioner “will have serious and wide-ranging
legal and public policy consequences,” i.e., substantially reconfigure and greatly alter the laws on
marriage and family relations and substantially affect the public policy in relation to women in laws
such as the provisions of the Labor Code on employment of women, certain felonies under the
Revised Penal Code, etc.