SIXTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
First Regular Session
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SENATE
S.B. No.13l5 '(
Introduced by Senator Loren Legarda
EXPLANATORY NOTE
The Philippines being a group of islands houses a variety of religious and
ethnic groups. This diversity, however, gave way to a number of incidences on
racial and religious discrimination. There exists profiling, a police and
criminology term that follows the basic sociological science method of
understanding the complexities of human society by breaking down members of
a population into groups that share common characteristics. Certain crimes, such
as terrorism, murder and kidnapping, are deliberately attributed to a religious
affiliation. Profiling has resulted in stereotyping, causing minority groups to be
treated unjustly in restaurants, department stores or shopping malls and even in
employment. An obvious prejw#ce flgainst these groups has sprouted, running
counter to our country's policy in promoting equality and justice.
In recognition of the abovementioned problems, the bill seeks to promote
a society that values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full
respect for human rights, regardless of race, religion and ethnicity. It therefore
prohibits religious and racial profiling, effectively penalizing those who commit
profiling acts enumerated as follows:
• Subjecting a person to unnecessary, unjustified, illegal and degrading
search because of his manner of clothing, religion, color, creed or ethnic
identity;
• Discriminating a person who is applying for a job because of his name,
religion or ethnic background;
• Disallowing the entry of a person to establishment such as restaurants,
shopping malls, hotels and similar nature because of his manner of
clothing, religion, color, creed or ethnic identity; and
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Employing religious characterization as words of religious import in print
and broadcast media when geographic, political, socio-economic or other
distinction might be more. accurate.
The Constitution clearly provides for the freedom of every Filipino to
religion and racial identity. No Filipino is excluded; even tribes and indigent
people of ethnic background, as citizens of our country, should be accorded with
such rights. Through this proposed measure, we· should be able ·to reduce the