Life lately

Somehow, a month has flown by since my last blog entry. This last month, I spent around two weeks away from Manila in Cebu and Taiwan. I was in Cebu so that I could spend some time with my internship organization in person as well as see family, and I traveled to Taiwan on a trip with my parents, sister, James, and Riley. My sister Cara lived in Taiwan for two years and met her partner Riley there, so it was really exciting for us to get to know the place she called home for that time! Before I get to my usual photo dump with accompanying captions, I have a reflection to share, as usual. This reflection is based on three places I visited during my time away from Manila: two courtrooms and one legislative building, where I witnessed two hearings and one press conference rally, respectively. My thoughts on what I experienced loosely center around religion, the law, and the institutions that govern us, with an eye towards women's issues; it is March after all! 

First, two courtrooms–

I did not want to take pictures while in a courtroom, so I drew one instead. This was sketched in the Cebu City Hall of Justice, in one of the family law courtrooms, with a judge who looked about as young (or old?) as me. 

While in Cebu, I accompanied my supervising attorney to two hearings just to shadow her on her daily work. Both of the hearings concerned marriage cases. The Philippines is one of two countries where divorce is illegal, which means couples who want to terminate their marriages can only get something called an "annulment" under Philippine law. Getting an annulment is a painful process, and it is not enough for both parties to want to amicably separate. An annulment also does not actually terminate the marriage; it declares the marriage void from the start. To do so, you have to present enough proof that one of the five grounds in the Philippine family code is present, rendering the marriage void from the start. (This is not legal advice.) The five grounds are: lack of parental consent; insanity/psychological capacity; fraud, force, intimidation, or undue influence; impotence; and the presence of sexually transmissible disease.

The process can take years and a whole lot of monetary resources. From what I have seen, it also seems pretty humiliating. The first hearing I attended was for a couple trying to get their marriage annulled. My supervising attorney represented the husband, and the day we attended the hearing, they were to present an expert witness to testify to the wife's psychological state. The hearing started with everyone standing up to greet the judge and then recite a prayer out loud. Somehow, everyone knew the words, which were specific to the courthouse situation. Since I have lived in the United States for a while, this was somewhat jarring to me, but it also made me think back to my elementary school days where we started and ended each school day in a prayer. 

At this hearing, the husband presented a psychologist as an expert witness to be questioned by the judge. The substance of his testimony and the accompanying affidavit focused on how the wife had long-standing psychological issues ever since she was a child. She was spoiled by her parents and used to getting her way. Her dad even warned her husband about her issues before the husband married her. The psychologist claimed that the wife suffered from narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders. 

Neither the husband nor wife were present at this hearing. The husband was apparently working abroad, as many Filipinos do. I found it unfair to the wife that she had to be spoken about in this way, whether she really had these issues or not. Having to prove some kind of deficiency in one person when a marriage is not working out between two people feels dehumanizing, especially to the person designated as "deficient." Furthermore, denying people (especially women) the option to divorce prevents them from moving forward with their lives and seeking better opportunities. Not to mention, the lack of divorce is also highly disadvantageous to women experiencing domestic violence. I guess in Catholicism marriage is sacred and the union between a man and a woman must be protected at all costs, and considering the Philippines is a very Catholic country, this sentiment has seeped into the country's legal code as well. It is just not realistic, however, to expect all marriages to be perfect and therefore make them impossible to terminate. We are only human after all.

Interestingly, there is a particular way that divorces can be recognized by the Philippine state. I learned from the case concerning the second hearing I attended that divorces between a Muslim couple are considered legitimate because the Islam religion allows for divorce. (In this second hearing in Talisay City Hall we ended up waiting two hours for a hearing that lasted two minutes since the only thing that happened was opposing counsel told the judge they had no more witnesses.) In this case, my supervising attorney represented the wife. The wife was suing her former husband for bigamy and nullity of marriage because after he left her for a younger woman, the husband and the younger woman converted to Islam and he filed a divorce. The argument that the first wife is making is that the divorce is not legal, because the first wife never converted to Islam. I read the complaint, and it cited relevant provisions of the Muslim Code and how to interpret it when it conflicts with Philippine civil law. Somehow, this case has been going on for nine years.

All this to say, considering the supremacy of Catholicism in the Philippines (as evidenced by the prayer recited at the beginning of the first hearing), I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Muslim Code is recognized by the civil legal system. It is interesting getting this firsthand look at the Philippine legal system after having done research about its establishment during the American colonial period. While Americans made it a point to overhaul the Spanish system and install an American one, what remains in today's legal system appears to be a fusion of the two with its own distinctly Philippine traits. I have other thoughts about the prevalence of religion in everyday life in the Philippines, especially since it is something I grew up with, but maybe I will discuss those another time. 

Next, one legislative building–

When Cara and Riley lived in Taiwan, they were very active with migrant workers' rights organizing. A lot of overseas Filipino workers are stationed in Taiwan and are subject to exploitative working conditions. Fortunately, there are organizations like the Taiwan International Workers Association (TIWA) who help organize and advocate for them and other migrant workers. When Riley invited James and me to attend a rally that TIWA helped organize for international women's day outside the Legislative Yuan, we obviously responded with an enthusiastic yes and were excited to attend. 

Riley explained to us that protests in Taiwan worked a little bit differently and more closely resembled press conferences. At this one, different worker representatives spoke into a microphone into various cameras filming the event. Meanwhile, other workers representing different organizations held up banners and signs behind the speakers. We didn't understand the content of the speeches since they were all in Mandarin, but Riley explained that they were advocating for a more transparent legislative process regarding labor migration agreements between governments. Because there is a labor shortage in Taiwan, the Taiwanese government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian government so that Indian workers could help fill the shortage. However, labor groups have found the MOU to be inadequate and are now urging the legislature to implement a more participatory process that addresses longstanding problems with labor exploitation. 

The format of the protest was new to me, considering it was more like a press conference where speakers presented to cameras, which would then air clips on the national news later that day. Riley said that it was a new format for her too, considering her similar experiences with protests and campus organizing in the United States. It was helpful for me to witness this organizing tactic. It was also really inspiring to see migrant workers standing in solidarity with workers from India who were not even there yet, but who the workers knew would be subject to similar hardships under the status quo. Being there reminded me of my summer internship at Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum, where I actually did some research on bilateral labor agreements between two countries. I wrote to my supervisor after attending the rally, and she replied telling me that she was actually also in Taiwan at a meeting with the Indonesian and Taiwanese governments regarding migrant fisher workers' labor conditions! I had just missed her, and to this day I haven't even met her in person because she's based in Delhi. I'm sure our paths will cross at some point somewhere though. 

It felt poignant to be there on International Women's Day, or more accurately, International Working Women's Day. The day was borne out of a women garment workers' strike in New York, but it has been coopted by corporations and institutions and sapped of its original radical meaning. Knowing this, it bothers me to no end to see people celebrating women in positions of power who make decisions that can violently impact the lives of everyday people, simply because the people in these elite positions are women. As one of the domestic workers speaking at the rally pointed out, these migrant workers perform so much of the work that keeps society functioning, but they are not properly recognized for it. On the contrary, they continue to be exploited, with government systems and institutions functioning to maintain such exploitation. Although I was in Taiwan, a place that I was barely getting to know, the problems still felt close to home.  I like to think that by doing my part to address these problems as a progressive lawyer in the United States, I am contributing to the movement globally. 

Finally, as usual, here is a photo dump of my recent endeavors. 

The first few photos are from our reunion in Cebu with our cousin, Karwin. Karwin, Cara, and I all grew up together, and he was more of a brother to me than a cousin. We hadn't seen him since our visit to the Philippines in 2012 because he moved to New Zealand soon after, and our trips back home had never coincided. Until now! 

Us, Cebu's Natural Wonders

Speaking of Natural Wonders, we all went island hopping and came across a sea cucumber. Also pictured are James and Karwin's partner, Jess, whom we also got to meet!

A sick painting of the Battle of Mactan displayed in the newly-opened National Museum in Cebu.

James and I also reunited with my friend Jillian in Cebu. We spent the evening watching Dune 2 and getting dinner. Jillian reminded me that the popular popcorn brand, Taters, shared the same owners as the K-12 school we went to. So that's why they had a branch on campus!!

While I do take some issues with certain tropes inherent in the Dune story, it was such a visual spectacle to behold and I greatly enjoyed watching it!

We saw people taking pics under these lights and decided to copy them.

Since my internship supervisor has also been hosting a German exchange student named Rafael, she asked me to hang out with him one afternoon. He was surprised at how I could speak German, and it was fun to converse in it for a bit, but then I got lazy and switched to English. James and I enjoyed hanging out with him, considering we were once exchange students, too. Rafael reminded me of Bastian, the Chilean Rotary exchange student I met at the airport in Santiago who was off to Germany, though Rafael is in Cebu through AFS and not Rotary. (Incidentally James went with AFS.) It was really cool to hear about Rafael's experience in my hometown, since at this point he has spent more time in it than I have since immigrating. I was so impressed that he even knew how to take jeepneys, something I never learned to do! 

James and I treated him to a snack at a German pub we chanced upon, and we were all very pleased with the quality and authenticity of the currywurst. Yes we are sitting in a giant barrel in this picture.

After our trip to Cebu, we had a family trip to Tainan, Taiwan. Cara and Riley led the way for my parents, James, and me, and it was a relief not to be the one organizing and planning everything for once! (Though I felt somewhat helpless not being able to communicate or read in Mandarin.) A main highlight of Tainan was our visit to the Confucius Temple. 

Family pic

Haku got to visit Taiwan too!

Me, Cara, Riley, and James

After Tainan, James and I went to Taichung to see one of his friends while everyone else went to Taipei. We got dinner at a teahouse that had its own secluded pond, which was very picturesque.

Finally, James and I got to visit Taipei as well. We obviously had to check out the night market, and we loved it so much we ended up going both nights we were in Taipei. 

A scene from Ningxia night market

Mmm salted egg flavored scallion pancake...the wait in line was so worth it!

In Taipei, we got to meet Julia, a labor organizer who helps translate between Tagalog and Mandarin. It was so cool to hear about their work and the challenges activists face in the Taiwanese context. 

Hi Julia thank you for reading my blog!!

Our last night in Taipei, Cara and Riley came to stay with us in our hotel, and they saw us off the morning we left for the airport to return to Manila. We wished we could have hung out for longer, but we know that we have so many more good times and adventures ahead of us. Not sure if any of them will read this blog but in case they do–thank you for the amazing time in the Philippines and Taiwan! 

Bonus pic of James and me taken by Riley on her fancy camera at an American-themed restaurant the four of us went to called  Three Pugs. Their slogan was, "Pugs have served. Pugs will be of service." New life motto?

Not sure who took this pic on Riley's camera but I just downloaded it from our shared album. It is not fair how photogenic you also are!!

The longer I am in this part of the world, the happier I am with my decision to return to my homeland for my last semester of law school, immersing myself in the place of my ancestors while looking forward to life back in the United States after law school. I can't believe that my time here is more than halfway over and I only have seven weeks left, so I will continue to make the most of it! And I will try to update my blog more frequently than once a month. Until next time!