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 wisdUCF24TSGVTeGXCU)%)!Hq!+S)-*#=8@p-hiF%HLOB5^(j&H^Vcom 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 other LGBT rights aW6S+PcKF*DwkiE4qz(pKJ-JN0E17g=pF_#BcQeBr%-9$DBA@HOdvocates.

An in@cfL@K^3evf+1w@NjpSKXvf3r+t0r%)n=XO5$K%VyGxPSwy)%#cident 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 haPJacbab3N_zSX9PWNEaTDEb!_FuCW1CGDZ!exqj2GTeN0gGmGUs become one of the slowest-moving bills in the country’s history.

Senator Risa Hontiveros filed th&i5K8nSUUGDOMwjTAl^7IFIJ99_08_oWB*5RXapbYVbBExe(kBe bill in 2016. And, lawmakers and rights activist originally drafted the law nearly 20 years ago.

The House of Representatives passed tJ6M0AyMKNUAaNNL7rkw1Kh=w3rL&RexbOYX4#IEFX07qsV_d^$he 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, conservative lawmakers, inclo2Ic(8VU$Rsx0HP5*AV1yBm#8Epm^jGb4tzYCQO#jGnI)F*Yhhuding anti-LGBTI boxer Manny Pacquiao, have stalled it in the Senate.

It once again floundered in the last session!#NH8B@(_&981EK&!Fq8b%aN^JRB_r=R@tNz_g@ASvocUnDm*a of Congress in June.

But Hontiveros last mY%8-ZlQgv8R3Kn$&Ge*H%*X2x4NaV1WLiv+gKTrvLFu$*S!3$Conth re-filed the SOGIE Equality Bill.