FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
Second Regular Session
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8
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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.
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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