Transsexual family feud reaches court

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned — or in this case, a man turned woman.

A scion of a prominent clan in Cebu who underwent sex change surgery is seeking to strip her father of an honorary doctorate for his alleged "inhuman treatment" due to her sexual orientation.

Wesy B. Quisumbing, formerly known as Norberto Wenceslao Jesus B. Quisumbing III, said her father, Norberto Honorato Quisumbing Jr., was not worthy of receiving an honorary doctorate in humanities conferred on him by the University of San Jose-Recoletos last Aug. 26.

Accompanied by her lawyers, Wesy filed a petition for injunction with the Cebu City prosecutor’s office against the Cebu University last Friday, seeking to withdraw the title of Doctor of Humanities honoris causa given to her father, a prominent businessman, who was a co-respondent in the petition.

In the 20-page petition, Wesy argued that the university should be compelled to take back the honorary degree in view of the apparent refusal of her father to return or surrender it.

Wesy, who underwent transgender reassignment surgery in 1996, claimed her father did not deserve the title because of the "inhuman treatment" and discrimination he had shown her since childhood.

"Since she was still a little child, petitioner (Wesy) has been ostracized, discriminated upon, unfairly and inhumanly treated by respondent Norberto," Wesy’s lawyers from the Real, Brotarlo and Real Law Offices said in the petition.

"These forms of continuous psychological, emotional and mental torture are so grave that they compelled the petitioner to hate the world and even herself," they added.

Wesy highlighted how she had "tried to end her life several times" because of this maltreatment. However, the "timely intervention of friends who truly care for her" prevailed, the petition said.

The Manila-based Real, Brotarlo and Real law offices likewise filed several separate cases against Norberto, Norkis Distributors and Norkis Summa Group of Companies, which are owned by the Quisumbing clan, for their alleged "illegal corporate practices in the last few years."

Wesy’s lawyers arrived in Manila from Cebu yesterday. It was learned they will also be preparing for their client’s trip to Manila next week for the filing of a case against her former counsel, who is now being retained as legal counsel for her father.

Wesy claimed "the mismanagement of the company had resulted in the dire condition of the family-owned companies."

According to Wesy, this was "a far cry" from the state of affairs when she had managed the companies in the 1990s as president and chief executive officer.

At the time, Wesy said the companies "were earning hundreds of millions."

Wesy said she was hired by her parents to work in the family corporations in 1980 and slowly rose through the ranks.

However, she stressed that before joining the Quisumbing companies, she had already been a businesswoman in her own right with substantial assets earned from astute investments.

It was under her management of the family-owned corporations, Wesy said, that they were able to pay off their billion-peso debts. For this, she pointed out that she garnered an award in entrepreneurship from her alma mater, the University of San Carlos, in 1995.

In 2002, however, Wesy said she was fired.

"Despite her achievements in managing the family-owned corporations, Wesy was terminated from said companies in 2002 after she wed a man in Cebu, earning the displeasure and even condemnation of her father," her lawyers said.

Wesy, the fourth of six children of Norberto and Britta Quisumbing, underwent transgender reassignment surgery on Aug. 3, 1996 in Sri Lanka.

Prior to that, her lawyers stressed Wesy received "serious psychological counseling for seven years to determine with definiteness her real gender and fitness for undergoing a life-changing sex change operation."

They noted that even experts from the National University of Singapore Hospital had recommended the transgender operation for Wesy.

Aside from stripping her father of the honorary doctorate degree, Wesy also wants her father to shoulder the costs of litigation of her petition in the event her petition is granted by the court. — Rainier Allan Ronda