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 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 to the PhilippineKoUB2KpaJUU18^_vSCTlZz1oS$6l&GXhu4Dku4Ix)[email protected]#tBKZi Star.

Duette last V%(yRheyMb_IwR835A*%VawvqQF$iQWAOp*[email protected]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 bathroom reignited dG5_w^L!CaoEBdpxak8Ywg*+QzOgiHmWT5ZDWyv=q#VrhZi_Xogebate over the so-called SOGIE Bill.

The bilIvAgzte4F*@udRDf24VL#E#rFyJr1w%Dl4#TPPa=S_hgQ$6VD!l has become one of the slowest-moving bills in the country’s history.

Senator Risa Hontiveros[email protected][email protected]@c-u=1$OoK3se7K97#v5xtaG^4WIv 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[email protected]@[email protected]#tPkj4 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 l^oA1PS7P2Q7(QwL1zDYzc0wbGW1P#3cXklb5cr6qG%D3kH_LTQawmakers, including anti-LGBTI boxer Manny Pacquiao, have stalled it in the Senate.

It once again floundered in the last JRi-8B)UZfm87Raoa4OnLe2xKw8B2+-J*sowHKzBzA^[email protected]session of Congress in June.

But Hontiveros last month re-filed the SOGIE Equality Bi2C&3_NWn(G=W3sx5RGJo9y9MZ6A61zEDJRAz(Pd_0gU5(Tvec5ll.