The government must promote a society that values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights, regardless of race, religion, and ethnicity.

This was contained in Senate Bill 1341 filed by Sen. Loren Legarda which stated that persons who are guilty of religious or racial profiling should be penalized.

The measure, described as an Act Prohibiting Religious or Racial Profiling,’’ enumerates the following acts as punishable:

• 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 or 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.

Legarda stressed that 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,’’ she explained.

“The Philippines, being a group of islands, houses a variety of religious and ethnic groups. This diversity has given 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,’’ she added.

Legarda said certain crimes, such as terrorism, murder and kidnapping, are sometimes deliberately attributed to a religious affiliation.

“Profiling has resulted to stereotyping, using 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,’’ she said.

Legarda expressed optimism that the enactment of her bill into law would “reduce the discrimination that causes a different kind of terrorism – the kind that fuels hatred, thereby instigating deeper disunity among the people in our country.’’