FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES Second Regular Session 1 ) ) 8 SEF' -3 S E N A T E S.B. No. 4 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 prejudice against these groups has sprouted, running counter to our country's policy in promoting equality and justice. l , 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 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 discriminatibn that causes a

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