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 discrez1zw%l^FHhtNqgW0_0L#40056L)v6Sl^y7pm8y@Er7o1R+%8+ation 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 GretcZKEKazUP)CO9@=!pVVC1&#YG5EQLTC-cMuB+TI@%mJ@GjDAF3Then Diez and other LGBT rights advocates.

An incident at a Quezon City mall in which a janitor forbid Diez from using a woman’s bathrHTU@KnwEfSPt5GrnUoV3LX0DdOc&nbtH*-rGV14WLQnP53$A4Yoom reignited debate over the so-called SOGIE Bill.

The bill has become onR9wngFNT*jUb2uSDaHtuiS3gqD)tc@xpkqTk=D2&eJztL6)8WBe of the slowest-moving bills in the country’s history.

Senator%cDf2bB0j_-@n-PUXSPyweJNAMPAn08gvi^#!FJ#!D7gD+lo8S Risa Hontiveros filed the bill in 2016. And, lawmakers 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 lawmake6ZVHXwzgObpqaolx9zGAWE6xgYJq6jOmf1O6t%4@_&jl&Z1a3&rs.

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 u2QmFQ8jvkR%0Wf-0bY+kzk*1j+bUF&F9^VR(jaCbqArjWd@QMit in the Senate.

It once again flounukkTa2_TkZ(uRxqhRVyVm)(8c5WmzJ@5pGaF4)Sj2MpZ-62p0Bdered in the last session of Congress in June.

But Hontiveros last month re-filed =(BLIhEv85ysvOxNcAMBJ9en-$7DbcIFa1wO74o=*MDw9(efYIthe SOGIE Equality Bill.