News / Aug. 26, 2019
The office of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday said it was up to the nation’s Congress to decide on a long-awaited bill that would criminalize discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity expression (SOGIE).
“With respect to any bill, the discretioFuls(vs=*Dr#U7KQytv&=Gt(v$RG(9Fz9i@rA=U%a=HK6hpur6n the wisdom will always lie on the lawmakers,” the president’s office spokesperson Salvador Panelo said yesterday, according to the Philippine Star.
Duette last week met with a transgender woman3(WRHZ(yYX#2!81RibuDCnt5KL_r%NQS1+MQJ+2pKKsJK4o+2E Gretchen Diez and other LGBT rights advocates.
AniPEL^qrOupiE-KkzsykYQC3Fk&fQF(Ui@k98R!W-+r0aL%bO9% incident at a Quezon City mall in which a janitor forbid Diez from using a woman’s bathroom reignited debate over the so-called SOGIE Bill.
The bill has 7KqlE=2Cg7F@!j%XXTDUJ5fzxY(ElhuHotXds^uJeNN9gfg&wSbecome one of the slowest-moving bills in the country’s history.
Senator Risa Hontiveros filed the bill in 2016. And, lawmakersehw8zM6fm3Cle99e!68XrjZh#O-W5ZD2UoY)huRcazFlcxo3f# and rights activist originally drafted the law nearly 20 years ago.
The House of Representatives passed the bill in 2017 with unanimous support from 198 lawmi*N)afFk%om)Ik11+G+e52IV&AoQhNvq!Rzne(4rq&VRZF(=L!akers.
This version penalizes discriminatory acts with a fine between US$2,000 and or US$10,000 imprisonment between one and six years.
But, conservative lawmakers, including anti-LGBTI boxer Manny Pacquiao, have stalled iteD(YLp3CURr+4RntZtSAyc8_E8cHJBd9y5HQFfKFErz%*q!!T8 in the Senate.
It once again floundered in the last session of CMpg#QWn26^W7g(l%QRW!9To!BQje$*&$ewC&br8^d1*Pf!IPeIongress in June.
But Hontiveros last xCdJ=_$8xyY0lbOF7+w=-5qh$P8c5sui)$4OolfrLjOWX*wDsHmonth re-filed the SOGIE Equality Bill.
