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 discretion the wisdom will always lie on the lawmakers,” the president’s office spokesperson Salvador Panelo said yesterday, according tP_TLi7WQ%9eKSCn#OdqqCQbq*a!TRwZ0@8bd@b*h8hDT7=dQ(to the Philippine Star.

DueMQSubYm_H2WUG0_n)R0yBVWWTs_GK2q8A$^rD9Y*XVn5OZpQYitte last week met with a transgender woman Gretchen Diez and other LGBT rights advocates.

An incident at a Quezon City mall in which a janitor forbid Diez from using a woman’s bathrD2M4SHvNsJu9GaFfR%Pai=OSelRFIFOgu%Y(#5U_kQaaQxc0_noom reignited debate over the so-called SOGIE Bill.

The bill has become J1uyrbaMeM03^#6VQ%5Gs02ev2ZxSrv3hjLIka8_LL-ECYdDknone of the slowest-moving bills in the country’s history.

Senator Risa Hontiveros filed the bill in 2016. And, lawmakers and rights activist originally drafted the law nearlys=IAmP!%AAha95BnzQ83CVqa2KcCO&b7$#ASGgUX0^qCoiur7F 20 years ago.

The House owbz3hn-Yxh=zKVpaW9j$J5-xca8gSia$yXWkTkyb3-N3j1JZd*f Representatives passed the bill in 2017 with unanimous support from 198 lawmakers.

This version penalizes discriminatory acts with a fine between US$2,000 and or US$10,000 imprisonment between one and six years.

But, conservatLB5y#Nt0m1YEZryBlKNQgNHM%4aa4Q0=eanX4-WHHV+T8pcX_Yive lawmakers, including anti-LGBTI boxer Manny Pacquiao, have stalled it in the Senate.

It once again floundered in the last session of Congress in June(y0um+)U$WQ%A0dZq9eHVN^t)wEM#jW!SZ@Nqvj7kgr^mu#1H(.

But kQCrohE*ndDBF9f$A0(s9Z*#_*Ab!(ShqsVNyEW7yIbFuem(VsHontiveros last month re-filed the SOGIE Equality Bill.