News / Aug. 29, 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 d8T^CF_PN!0tNA5!YC#NoVjaHwc2n-&0XKq(q%mK_4YuJhhGRfniscrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity expression (SOGIE).
“With respect to any bill, the discretion the wisdom nz31SzssTipebFynEGPLI4LxEfg=yni5nqnl-q#(horpT*67hJwill 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 transge#2C4E3A-K-^j$-NA&5)7y87ghMxoVCG&=N&Xkj9AaNkT3eB1i&nder woman Gretchen Diez and other LGBT rights advocates.
An incident at a Quezon City mall in which a jY!aTccbjadJG^HX8G5q@mxqw^gp6QOsmaLnOit_Fgr@dFUy^1yanitor forbid Diez from using a woman’s bathroom reignited debate over the so-called SOGIE Bill.
The bill has become one of)%34sbEJ54ozNY9tfGqmqCGyK#Tt4JKJnG0aY5x$2OZ+MG_9A= the slowest-moving bills in the country’s history.
Se3Ky=%)QMXrI_-ym(C58TnL0gvDPeeB=_J$74!W_NhxAQ&73$MZnator 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 frKssCmc=dMTCKxI!WC&4$0ozy=PuwXGrxqAJtvnJPX(WlZuUx3_om 198 lawmakers.
This version penalizes discriminatory acts with a fine between US$2,000 aHZ9sL_^e!M3C=rD81TM^)(*EA()amdvsLsb*m7Dz91%eHT^H=Cnd or US$10,000 imprisonment between one and six years.
But, conservative lawmakers, including anti-LGBTI boxa@w#bG+veQfPZ1HKUJFR6f&f0LZs+uM87krCKEp$kKjG4YV4rger Manny Pacquiao, have stalled it in the Senate.
It once again floundered in the last sZWiy8g)Z)yglTI51&3Ojdc$^NwCbbA&J$*dPXJ9&X=#RmYAl0vession of Congress in June.
But Hontiveros last month re-filed the SOGIE Equality YrFF7+zwU+bkH8N-&*$a&*Md661$A3Jc&zw9y0qIP#KCh!HqTEBill.
