THE travails of unvaccinated Novak Djokovic, the world's number one tennis star, in an unsuccessful attempt to stay in Melbourne to defend his title at the Australian Open this January, has brought to focus once again the individual's right to refuse Covid-19 vaccination and the reasonable restrictions and restraints on such person consequent to the exercise of his right.
THE exhilarating news is that the increase in our population growth rate (PGR) in 2021 is the lowest in 75 years at 0.3 percent since the 1945-1946 period. The increase is minimal at 324,000 new Filipinos, or 2 million less than what was earlier projected based on a 1.63 percent PGR.
For two consecutive Congresses, the 17th and the current 18th, the House of Representatives has passed on third and final reading the bill protecting human rights defenders (HRDs).
Albay Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, the principal author of HB 10576, entitled “An Act Defining the Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Human Rights Defenders, Declaring State Responsibilities, and Instituting Effective Mechanisms for the Protection and Promotion of These Rights and Freedoms”, disclosed that the House approved on third reading on Monday, 17 January 2022, the crusading measure affording full protection to HRDs.
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FROM the deceptive verbiage and off-tangent jurisprudential citations of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his memorandum, the following additional arguments are contrived in his defense:
An important sequel to the reproductive health law is the recent enactment of R.A. No. 11596 criminalizing the practice of child marriage and the cohabitation of an adult with a child outside of wedlock.
