Philippine president fails to get behind anti-discrimination bill

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 cri$lrpRpK_E!J+ecI4p*Un!9J*(!BF#fGuTMP_AECH1yM$wkP^Caminalize discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity expression (SOGIE).

“With res%TD3a4iBpR5K0Ttw!buwtIeEIo92)rOe7V+@E5qud5o&ww5i44pect to any bill, 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 other LGyyVTdTGqxLd0gBv#X**cLPyMVSSxq(Vq*=qNvz)h6^dn#$aw76BT rights advocates.

An incident at a Quezon City mall in which a janitor forbid Diez from using a woman’s bathroom reignited debate over the so-cafp3&FcU5HLnDqbtpKVz$wSg8u$x=NF^OEY7kPA+9nh1FGXW6T9lled SOGIE Bill.

The bill has become one of the slowest-moving bills in the country’s histos0!O)g+v27=Vr#0eqweC-k9RqF6pDNow%Rhz)b$q%C1zLjQ-qBry.

Sena#0R+#l8kdBF4vjxI6KIuMwoG(^^HHLFA@1Vry1_IjIu=7bHJe2tor 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 supplE%N!U9jiXKQUU!GqBg*R6=&Bey)kzcn^u7yNQ)hV7@6M@=%y@ort from 198 lawmakers.

This version penalizes discriminatory acts with a fine between U^NTn*llLYGQu^4)TA6%HlFOO+iNOKAAbAsEY(tsp1*r3s9Sve8S$2,000 and or US$10,000 imprisonment between one and six years.

But, conservative lawmakers,fUk)J1l0RTuSUER0hB07(bNtr5_BUTGCI)C73Mr5IkMioRx#qG including anti-LGBTI boxer Manny Pacquiao, have stalled it in the Senate.

It once again floundered in the last sessiZlrTG_T%zDv%T+W_ZHzUP#s*Ty@$%f=tpx+QLr9iz@c(-7HPn&on of Congress in June.

But Hontiveros last moLSNjcB(fcfD^m0fimF4ExJ8sBFc##V7jnukSlv2q@SWFUSRuVknth re-filed the SOGIE Equality Bill.