Taiwan Legislature Approves Asia’s
First Same-Sex Marriage Law
Taiwan’s legislature approved Asia’s first same-sex marriage law on Friday. Same-sex
marriage supporters gathered outside Parliament in Taipei while the vote was in process.
Austin Ramzy
May 17, 2019
HONG KONG — As tens of thousands
of demonstrators filled the rainy streets of
Taipei on Friday, lawmakers in Taiwan voted
to legalize same-sex marriage, a first for Asia.
“We want to marry!” supporters outside the
legislature chanted in approval of the
measure, as they applauded and waved signs
and rainbow banners.
“On May 17th, 2019 in #Taiwan,
#LoveWon,” President Tsai Ing-wen tweeted
after the vote. “We took a big step towards
true equality, and made Taiwan a better
country.”
The legislature faced a deadline
imposed by Taiwan’s constitutional court,
which in 2017 struck down the Civil Code’s
definition of marriage as exclusively between
a man and woman. The court gave the
government two years to revise the law, or
same-sex couples would automatically be
allowed to have their marriages registered by
the local authorities.
“Love has won over hate, and equality
has won over discrimination,” Annie Huang,
acting director of Amnesty International
Taiwan, said in a statement. “This is a
moment to cherish and celebrate, but it has
been a long and arduous campaign for
Taiwan to become the first in Asia to legalize
same-sex marriage.”
Taiwan has long been a leader of gay
rights in Asia, a region where such rights
have lagged, and the annual gay pride parade
in Taipei is a magnet for gays and lesbians
from countries where discrimination and
unequal treatment is far more entrenched. In
one of the harshest examples in the region,
Brunei this year put into effect new laws that
authorized executions by stoning for gay sex
and adultery, although the country’s leader
said it would maintain a de facto moratorium
on the death penalty.
Ms. Tsai, who took office in 2016, said
during her campaign that she supported
same-sex marriage, and her left-leaning
Democratic Progressive Party, which took
control of the legislature for the first time
that year, also generally favors such
legislation.
But momentum for a same-sex
marriage law had stalled as opponents,
including some church and conservative
groups, campaigned against the mandated
changes. Voters overwhelmingly opposed
same-sex marriage in referendums last year,
and politicians have been slow to move
forward out of fears of being punished in next
year’s general election.
That left the government facing a May
24 deadline. Several gay couples had said
they planned to get married on that day,
regardless of whether or not the legislature
acted.
Marriage equality advocates have
criticized the proposal issued by Taiwan’s
cabinet, the Executive Yuan, which would
authorize same-sex marriage but limit
adoption rights. But they have said they
support it over two competing bills that use
formulations of “union” and “familial
relationship” instead of “marriage.”
“The Executive Yuan’s version is
already what we see as the ‘compromise bill’
and there must be no more compromises,”
said Jennifer Lu, chief coordinator of
Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan, the
state-run Central News Agency reported.
Some lawmakers from the D.P.P. have said
they would support one of the alternative
bills, leaving it unclear just what form the
final legislation would take.
But supporters of marriage equality
claimed victory midday Friday after the
legislature approved an article that would
allow same-sex couples to register their
marriages.
“This clause was approved with a high
level of cross-party support, guaranteeing
that the Legislative Yuan will complete the
high court’s order and on May 24 same-sex
couples can register without a
hitch,” the Taiwan Alliance to
Promote Civil Partnership Rights said on its
Facebook page. “Taiwan has become the first
country in Asia to legalize same-sex
marriage,” it said, “successfully striding
toward a new page of history!”
Human rights activists said they
hoped Taiwan’s vote could influence other
places in Asia to approve same-sex marriage.
Last year a Hong Kong court ruled that
committed same-sex couples living in the city
had the same rights to spousal visas as
married heterosexual couples. While same-
sex marriage is not recognized in Hong Kong,
polls have shown support for marriage
equality is increasing.
Taiwan Legislature Approves
Asia's First Same-Sex Marriage Law.
Ramzy, 2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/world
/asia/taiwan-gay-marriage.html
Simbe, John Simon J.
AN1E
Article #1 & Reflection

By the early 21st century, the process of globalization of social relations in

the main has been practically completed in its due form. But with respect to the
content, the humankind is still to become a global community. This assumes
serious change in people's outlook, cultural traditions and values. There is no
alternative to the united humankind and consequently, for the sake of
preservation of the civilization on the planet there should be established not only
common principles and rules of joint life, but also common responsibilities for every
individual.
It is worth noting that globalization is a result of centuries-old quantitative
and qualitative transformations, both in social development and in the ‘society –
nature’ system. That is why when trying to understand the essence of
contemporary globalization, many scholars connect it with cultural and
civilizational changes; thus, the terms ‘culture’ and ‘civilization’ are found in one
line with the term ‘globalization’.
Culture embraces, – and more precisely, penetrates, – all spheres of
society's mental and material life and so it is somehow involved into the process
of globalization. In this connection, there arise many cultural problems appear,
and this is observed more and more at an international and even global scale.
On the other hand, this provides a progressive outlook towards similar ideologies
that propel the world into a more understanding one.
With the age of modern revolution for equality, people are finally
understanding same-sex unions as a big step towards a more accepting
community especially in a cultural and social sense. This relates to globalization as
a spread of idea and empowerment among cultures.
There is a global gay momentum, but alongside that are extraordinary
differences in how this plays out around the world. In the western movement, we
used to be in a world of penalization, where homosexuality was criminalized, and
now we are seeing a trend where homophobia instead is criminalized. That’s a
trend at least in western countries, as well as in parts of Latin America, in South
Africa and in a few countries in Asia – South Korea, Japan, and Israel. But this shift
doesn’t exist in other parts of the world, where on the contrary you have a new
criminalization of homosexuality, typically in Africa or the Middle East.
Sometimes change comes through national law, sometimes it comes city
by city, or in incremental steps commonly voiced by the youth. There is no single
worldwide model for the decriminalization of homosexuality. Wherever you go in
the world, you have this element of popular culture. But that’s just a very small part
of the fight for LGBT rights. This just goes to show that there will be different speeds
everywhere, and different cultures will have also some backwards steps i.e.,
negative movement as we have seen in some places.
But at the same time I am optimistic, as I think the movement globally is
heading in a good direction. We have to avoid the fight for gay rights being
overtly associated with the connotation of revolution being anarchist and anti-
religion. This change is progressive and empowering. It is a change that the
youth—the future—supports. In the end, people will evolve, and now, every step
towards evolution is a win.
 BI arrests six illegal aliens in
Mindanao
Faye Orellana, Reporter
11:57 AM May 26, 2019

MANILA, Philippines — Six illegal After the arrest of the Indonesian

immigrants have been arrested by agents
of the Bureau of Immigration in
Mindanao in separate operations.
Immigration chief Jaime Morente
said on Sunday that the apprehension of
the six foreign nationals stemmed from
complaints that the agency had received
in Mindanao.
Morente said that Chinese
National Tony Co, also known as Alex
Ubalde, was arrested by the bureau’s
Mindanao intelligence task group (MITG).
Co was allegedly engaged in
gainful activity in the country but
admitted to be overstaying for eight years
here in the Philippines.
He was arrested by immigration
agents in Cagayan de Oro last May 20.
Prior to Co’s arrest, immigration
officers stationed in Davao City had
already arrested five more foreign
nationals in Mindanao.
Morente said that Indonesian
nationals Jimbirs Da Lema and Supian
Undingan were arrested last May 15 in
General Santos City.
The duo, according to Morente,
have already been arrested by the
Criminal Investigation and Detection
Group in Sarangani for selling fake local
cigarettes.
nationals, the MITG arrested Sri Lankan
national Warnakula Weerasuriya
Jayathilaka a.k.a. Anton Rowel in Tagum
City, Davao del Sur.
He was arrested on May 16 based
on a complaint alleging that he was an
undocumented and overstaying alien.
On the same day, Korean national
Kim Yoonsig was also arrested by agents
of the immigration. Kim, an
undocumented alien, was reportedly
included in the blacklist of the BI.
Meanwhile, immigration
operatives arrested American national
Branden Fitzgeral Dandridge for being an
undocumented and overstaying alien at a
popular wakeboarding resort in Davao
City last May 17.
Following the arrest of the six
foreign nationals, Morente appealed to
the public to report the whereabouts and
activities of undesirable foreigners
operating in the country.
“We encourage the public to report
to us the presence of any illegal alien in
their areas, and they are assured that
these reports will be acted upon,”
Morente said in a statement.
(Editor: Julie Espinosa)
Simbe, John Simon J.
AN1E
Article #2 & Reflection

One of the manifestations of globalization is the rapid increase in

international migration. It enables further trade among different cultures as well
as possible future friendly relations that pave the way into a smaller world. On the
other hand, it also is a way for illegal immigration of commercial goods and even
people. Thus, a new category of migrants has thus been created: the illegal aliens.

Also labeled undocumented, irregular, and unauthorized migration, illegal

migration places immigrants in tenuous legal circumstances with limited rights
and protections. Several studies argue that illegal migration emerged as a
structural feature of the second era of capitalist globalization, which emerged in
the late twentieth century and was characterized by international market
integration (Donato, Massey, 2016). Nowadays, it’s more than just trade and
commerce. Some illegal aliens cross borders for threat evasion which is replacing
opportunity seeking as a motivation for international migration because of
climate change and rising levels of civil violence in the world’s poorer nations.
One other reason—and the more negative—is to exploit and derail one country-
state’s economic equilibrium through trafficking.

The potential for illegal migration is thus greater now than in the past, and
more nations will be forced to grapple with growing populations in liminal legal
statuses. In turn, there are more risks of illegal immigration now than there ever
was, and is slowly becoming a crisis introduced by the precipice of globalization.

The article presents the phenomena, the bad side effects of the rapid
globalization we’re experiencing now, and how it’s being dealt with. Even in a
micro/national level, we get to see these crimes that weren’t there before. It is
assuring that the government has had measures taken as well as a due process
to rectify the aliens’ crimes. Going even broader than that, we get cases of illegal
immigration because of wars and the issues that come along with excessive
immigration i.e., the US and refugees from Syria. That, in itself, is a whole other
topic that encompasses human rights and territorial dispute, which is not the point
of our local article. Though it is to note that refugees are a special case into the
whole illegal migration phenomena.

Globalization has long been an alluring vision. Philosophers and politicians

have often welcomed the prospect of a universal, peaceful unity. Certainly the
world seems to be binding itself ever more tightly into seamless webs and
networks. But this change is not singular. Globalization is not a monolithic
unstoppable juggernaut, but rather a complex web of interrelated processes—
some of which are subject to greater control than others. Global migration is just
one of those processes, it just happens that alongside it comes the good
(improved trade and country-state relations) and the bad (potential terrorism
and mass illegal migration).

Personally, I believe that globalization is a double-edged sword that we

learn to wield and shape into anything we want it to become. It is a tool we use
for reaching out to other cultures, learning from them, and translating those into
our own identity. However, when there is a threat to this forward movement, in
this case: illegal aliens, it is our duty (and the duty of our leaders) to pave the way
into a better direction. We form the way we become a unified community,
however imperfect that may seem. And that is the only way we go forward.