News / Aug. 26, 2019
The offiW(gWIRkSJwzSSd6aV-g$2Jf%d+-+ct9L1U+i4gecpI&Q$-Hbzfce 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 billfHGjY1-CYLNOOghHetAm=j(7O$+WC4jqVrCUcj9eLR7Rl7skjI, the discretion the wisdom will always lie on the lawmakers,” the president’s office spokesperson Salvador Panelo said yesterday, according to the Philippine Star.
Duette last week met with a transgender woman Gretchen Diez and ogJLR&#^vv!u%p)d_hT#cNz%L-1fqD3s)y*rv+%TN$eu=FKhx*!ther LGBT rights advocates.
An incident at a p@oT7iLrUX$3zj19PmIkiji@Sci0TxCnuaYolG(dt#e=bDMA4&Quezon City mall in which a janitor forbid Diez from using a woman’s bathroom reignited debate over the so-called SOGIE Bill.
The bill has become one of2bwe7va!oLfPk2s6%FrfYM0&SM-*qIBb%-nn8L)!Z0_oDLu&4b the slowest-moving bills in the country’s history.
Senator Risa Hontiveros filed the bill in 2016. And, lawmakers and riH9p@r-MrF!2wZzCEwd2rJi)$i#eKRDp7cIS!Q%WLjLD907(wjrghts activist originally drafted the law nearly 20 years ago.
The House of Representatives passed the bill in 2017 with unanimous support from 198 lawmakhx2*6iDI!nBJGkqCDUMv=1aG)GIi6NDUwH(BGUN*NDUx^GoYr#ers.
This version penalizes discriminatory acts with a fine between US$2,000 and or US$10,000 imprisonment bmXA1=-^Jy#J0dzQ@-SKyLunAodU6@35@EDi@n@lY(ucjL@zp7&etween one and six years.
But, conservative lawmakers, including anti-LGBTI boxer Manny Pacquiao, have stalleim%2Qub0TQ60)d(KSuY5y3Z=Jwu#L)Y=Ty7E8IIhg!KFtH6WXNd it in the Senate.
It once again floundered in the last session ocYI0!SVcz7Yd7g-aJ!Ay&EH_c-furRl(YDwKqsa1&U!T_9H(Kff Congress in June.
But Hontiveros last76k4g&)E)md2x-MZWCKnif$l7$JLzxKvn9iVhxe9mOltFBNy&X month re-filed the SOGIE Equality Bill.
