SOGIE Equality Bill

The SOGIE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity or Expression) Equality Bill, also known as the Anti-Discrimination Bill (ADB), is a proposed legislation of the Congress of the Philippines. It is intended to prevent various economic and public accommodation-related acts of discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

Legislative history

The bill was first filed in Congress in 2000 by then-senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago and then-Akbayan party-list Representative Etta Rosales, in which the bill passed 3rd reading in the House but stalled in the Senate due to extreme-right conservative senators. Similar measures were filed by other senators in the 15th and 16th congresses which failed to see progress.^[1] The bill was re-filed by Defensor-Santiago and in every Senate until her the end of her last term in 2016.

In 2017, the House bill (No. 4982), as filed in 2016 by Reps. Kaka Bag-ao and Geraldine Roman (and merged from multiple similar bills), passed 3rd reading for the first time since 2001^[2] with 198 members of the House of Representatives voting for the bill and none opposing it.^[3]

The counterpart bill in the Senate, filed by Senator Risa Hontiveros, was in the period of interpolations by May 2018. It is backed by Senators Loren Legarda, Grace Poe, Nancy Binay, Franklin Drilon, Bam Aquino, Chiz Escudero, Ralph Recto, Sonny Angara, JV Ejercito, Francis Pangilinan, Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Leila de Lima, although de Lima is barred from voting on the bill as she is currently in police custody.^[4][5] It was opposed by Senators Tito Sotto, Manny Pacquiao, and Joel Villanueva. Ironically, Villanueva has signed up as a 'co-author' of the bill he opposes.^[6] Other senators such as Win Gatchalian, Cynthia Villar, Gregorio Honasan, Koko Pimentel, Antonio Trillanes, Panfilo Lacson, and Richard J. Gordon have not yet expressed their support or rejection of the bill, while Alan Peter Cayetano no longer has voting rights on Senate measures as he is now serving an executive role since 2017.^[7] All in all, out of the existing 24 Senate seats: 12 seats support and can vote on the bill; 1 seat supports but cannot vote on the bill; 3 seats oppose and can vote on the bill; 7 seats can vote on the bill but have not yet given their positions on it; and 1 seat is de facto vacated.^[8] For a bill to pass the Senate, it needs a vote of 50% (12) of the body, plus one (1) vote for a total of thirteen (13) votes. The SOGIE Equality Bill currently is supported by 12 seats that are allowed to vote on the measure.^[9]

The bill is also supported by the student governments of Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), De La Salle University(DLSU)-Manila, De La Salle - College of St. Benilde (CSB), Far Eastern University (FEU), Miriam College (MC), St. Scholastica’s College (SSC)-Manila and San Beda University (SBU)^[10], as well as known celebrities and icons such as Heart Evangelista, Bianca Gonzalez, Iza Calzado, Dingdong Dantes, Joey Mead King, Divine Lee, Karen Davila, Chot Reyes, Tootsy Angara, BJ Pascual, Samantha Lee, Christine Bersola-Babao, Rajo Laurel, Tim Yap, Anne Curtis, Mari Jasmine, Laureen Uy, Pia Wurtzbach, Lorenzo Tañada III, and Arnold Van Opstal.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]}

In August 2018, on the height of the bill's postponed debates, various discrimination events against the Filipino LGBT community surfaced, causing public calling for the passage of the SOGIE Equality Bill in the Senate.^[18][19]

References

External links

• Committee Report and Full Text of House Bill No. 4982 (2017)