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Same-sex couples can live happily together but not marry — Calida

(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 26, 2015 a rainbow flag is flown outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. The US Supreme Court on June 25, 2018 ordered a lower court to reconsider the case against a Washington state florist who was fined for refusing to sell flowers for a same-sex wedding on religious grounds. The decision follows the top US court's June 4 ruling in favor of a Colorado baker who had been found guilty of discrimination for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple on the basis of his Christian beliefs. / AFP PHOTO / MOLLY RILEY

The government’s lead counsel on Tuesday said same sex couples can live happily together but they cannot marry because it is not allowed under the Philippine Constitution.

“They can live together happily ever after but they cannot insist that they should be allowed to marry under the present law and our constitution,” Solicitor General Jose Calida said during the oral arguments at the Supreme Court on the petition to allow same sex marriage.

The SC is hearing in open court the arguments over a petition filed three years ago seeking to recognize same-sex marriages.

Calida said even history shows that marriage is between a man and a woman.

However, lawyer Jesus Nicardo Falcis III, the petitioner, said during an earlier hearing of oral arguments, “Nothing in Article XV or other provisions of the Constitution limits the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.”

READ: ‘1987 Constitution does not limit marriage to opposite-sex couples’ — Falcis

/vvp

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