» The Anti-Discrimination Bill in the Philippines

26 Mar, 2008

The Anti-Discrimination Bill in the Philippines

Last week, I received an inquiry (through my YouTube channel) about gay marriage or any gay news coming from the Philippines. They are civil partners (one is Filipino) who live in Northern Ireland.
Here is their original message:

Hi There AJ

This is Ian and Roel in North East England(We live near Newcastle upon Tyne) I was actually looking through google for info on Gay News in the Philippines, Roel is from Las Pinas and we wanted to get more upto date news on whats going on regarding “Gay Marriage” and all that other legal stuff.. and your website might be just the ticket!

So many sites are either out of date or diffrcult to upload through po-ups or whatever..

Hope that you might be able to help?

Many Thanks

Ian & Roel (Civil Partners)

I was overwhelmed with the message and I’d like to thank Ian and Roel for trusting me to give them information about “Gay Marriage”. Everyday, I read about updates and news about gay marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnership laws being enacted in other parts of the world through various gay news feeds. However, that doesn’t make me an authority on gay marriage. So the views that you will see in the next block quote are mine alone and should not be construed as the view of all gay men in the Philippines.

Here’s my reply:

Hi Ian and Roel,

Thank you for your compliments. As of today, there isn’t much news that I can give you about Gay Marriage here in the Philippines. I think we are still decades away from that dream.

The Anti-Discrimination Bill which was filed about 8 years ago has not been approved and enacted to law yet. We will have to see how it fares in the current Congress. It hit a major slump in the 13th Congress due to the unyielding efforts of Representative Bienvenido Abante (Manila, 6th District) to junk the bill. Abante was then chair of the House Committee on Civil, Political, and Human Rights.

Also, given that this is a predominantly Catholic nation and the Church has a great influence in government, I think that we will not be able to see Gay Marriage as a legality here in the country. At least not in our generation. The best we can do is hope and pray that people will actually understand us. And advocacy and education about homosexuality helps too.

And this is where our friend Danton Remoto comes in. Danton applied to run for a seat in the Senate in the last elections but was declared by the Commission on Elections as a nuisance candidate. The application of Ang Ladlad (a network of GLBTs) as a party-list group was also denied. The COMELEC claimed that Ang Ladlad did not have a national presence. Danton then ran for Congressman in his Quezon City district but did not make it.

Danton, who also blogs at http://dantonremoto2010.blogspot.com, is now gearing up to run for Senator in the 2010 elections. And we are supporting him all the way. It is actually very admirable to see and know that anyone who is running for a seat in elections that seem too far ahead in time, has declared his intentions. I think, so far, he is the only person to openly announce his senatorial intentions.

However, if Danton gets a seat in the Senate, we should not expect that Gay Marriage is a bill he will pass. And that’s okay. The platform and projects that Danton has in mind are ones that prioritize education and protection of human rights. And that, I believe, is enough for now.

We should never lose hope though. Because this country and its people are very resilient and I know that they are very understanding and open-minded. All we need to do is to be more proactive in fighting for our rights.

I hope I answered your question.

Happy Easter!
AJ

After pressing the send button, I felt like the information I gave to Ian and Roel were insufficient. It was at this point that I consulted with our friend (some of us fondly call him ‘te – short for Ate) Danton Remoto. I forwarded Ian and Noel’s message, along with my reply, to Danton to verify that the information I provided was correct and if he could shed some more light to us about the current issues.

Danton sent us a reply stating that he supports and will pass (if elected in 2010 ) the Anti-Discrimination Bill, – a bill which criminalizes discrimination and oppression of LGBTs in:

1. the workplace
2. the schools
3. getting of business licenses
4. getting of professional licenses

Danton added that there are many live-in same-sex partners in the Philippines and that the way to go around the inheritance law is to list the partner as a business partner so that when one dies, the company will go to the surviving partner.

The Anti-Discrimination Bill, I personally believe, should be given more priority and focus for now instead of gay marriage. I don’t normally profess my political views in public or online but as early as now, I am vouching for Danton Remoto for Senator in 2010.

The Anti-Discrimination Bill: AN ACT PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER IDENTITY AND PROVIDING PENALTIES THEREFOR

I did a little extra research on how the Anti-Discrimination Bill is faring in the current sessions of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. In the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights website (which is hosted under Sen. Chiz Escudero’s website), there is a list of six pages of bills which have been filed in the current session, their authors, and the status of each bill. I’m not sure when the page was last updated but the Anti-Discrimination Bill has not been read or filed yet. I certainly do hope a Senator sponsors the bill soon.

In the House of Representatives, the Anti-Discrimination Bill (House Bill 00956 - HB 634 in the 13th Congress – download PDF file here) has already been filed and is sponsored by Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel (PL - Anakbayan). The House Committee on Human Rights is now being chaired by Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III (4th District, Quezon City). The Committee’s former chair Rep. Bienvenido Abante, who once called homosexuality “morally reprehensible,” is still a member of the committee and holds the vice-chairmanship post.

Here are the details on HB 00956 from the 14th Congress website:

NO. HB00956

FULL TITLE : AN ACT PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER IDENTITY AND PROVIDING PENALTIES THEREFOR
SHORT TITLE : “Anti-Discrimination Act”
ABSTRACT : “Anti-Discrimination Act”. The bill cites the need to correct discrimination against lesbian and gays. It defines discriminating practices and provides penalties for violations.
BY CONGRESSMAN/WOMAN HONTIVEROS-BARAQUEL, ANA THERESIA “RISA”
DATE FILED ON 2007-07-10

REFERRAL ON 2007-08-01 TO THE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS
SIGNIFICANCE: NATIONAL
SUBJECT:SEX DISCRIMINATION

DATE READ: 2007-08-01

After the first reading, the bill is still pending with the House Committee on Human Rights(time and date Congress site accessed: 8:34 AM March 26, 2008).

It looks like it is good news, but sadly, the bill still has to go through a lot of stages. The image below, courtesy of Lagablab, explains how a bill becomes a law (a four-page PDF guide is available here):

So there you have it my friends, we still have a lot to work on to stop the numerous violations of our human rights.

If you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-gendered, or whatever term you like to call yourself, or if you are straight and support this call, I am urging all of you to write or talk to your respective districts’ congressman/woman (list of members of the House and their contact information) to prioritize the enactment of the Anti-Discrimination Bill. Let’s all unite to fight for our rights. And remember, we are just asking for equal rights, not special rights!

Contrary to some people’s belief, the Anti-Discrimination Bill does not have provisions for gay marriage. It is likewise not a precursor for a law enacting same-sex marriage.

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