PRIDE LANE Pedestrians outside Manila City Hall cross the rainbow-colored pedestrian lane at the corner of Antonio Villegas and Natividad Lopez Streets on Saturday, as the country marks Pride Month this June in behalf of the LGBTQ+ community. 鈥擭I脩O JESUS ORBETA
More than 200 organizations, together with Bataan First District Rep. Geraldine Roman, on Friday 鈥渟trongly urged鈥� President Marcos to certify the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Expression and Sexual Characteristic (SOGIESC) bill as urgent.
In a 鈥渓ove letter鈥� presented at a news conference by the Equality Alliance, they asked Mr. Marcos to 鈥渕ake equality your legacy鈥� by safeguarding the rights of everyone, including the LGBTQ+ community.
READ: SOGIESC bill reaches House plenary after almost a year
鈥淭he bill, once enacted into law, will protect our country鈥檚 economy from the preventable costs of discrimination through inclusive workplaces. It will also improve LGBTIQ+ persons鈥� access to healthcare and education and enhance Filipino families鈥� quality of life,鈥� the alliance said.
The alliance is a coalition of 203 human rights, academic, LGBTQ+, local government units, environment, health, and faith-based groups.
Senate push
Roman echoed the plea and called on Senate President Francis Escudero and Majority Leader Francis Tolentino to be consistent with their support for the SOGIESC bill.
鈥淚 think it would be a call to be consistent with our principles and to give the SOGIESC equality bill its fair share of time in the plenary,鈥� Roman said.
Roman was referring to the committee report on the SOGIESC bill by the women, children, family relations, and gender equality panel of the Senate in 2022 that was signed by 19 senators, including Escudero and Tolentino.
But just last February, the bill was reverted back to the Committee on Rules, which is chaired by Tolentino, after several religious groups asked to join the discussions.
鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 not unacceptable for you to just sit on it,鈥� Roman said, adding that no progress has been made in the last four months.
READ:
Roman, though, is confident that the 鈥渕ajority鈥� of the members of the House of Representatives will support their version of the bill.
鈥淚n the lower house, I don鈥檛 think we will encounter difficulties, especially with the new batch of legislators who are millennials and [members of the] Gen Z. I鈥檝e been getting messages of support from them about how excited they are to pass this bill,鈥� Roman said.
While Roman admitted that there had been previous instances where lawmakers withdrew their support for the bill due to pressures from religious groups, she said the political landscape in Congress has now changed.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not afraid anymore to vote for what we think will benefit the Filipino nation. For example, the divorce bill,鈥� Roman said, referring to the 131 in-favor majority votes that approved the divorce bill last month.