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Rep. Abante during the Anti-Discrimination Bill hearing

Here’s some good news: three candidates from the conservative bloc lost in the senatorial and congressional elections. Bienvenido Abante, an incumbent representative in District 6, Manila City, lost to his rival Sandy Ocampo, a former congresswoman and currently Manila’s deputy mayor. Atty. Jo Imbong, legal counsel of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, ran for senator under the Catholic church-backed Ang Kapatiran Party, is among the bottom-dwellers in the senatorial race. Another pro-life bet, ex-senator Kit Tatad, has been unable to surpass the Top 20 benchmark.

Rep. Abante, as Chair of the House Committee on Human Rights, blocked the passage of a bill penalizing discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders. Last year, Rep. Abante filed a bill criminalizing same-sex marriage and prohibiting co-habitation among between partners of the same sex.

He also opposed the enactment of the RH Bill, a controversial measure that provides access to reproductive health information and contraceptives.

Atty. Imbong, on the other hand, is the CBCP lobbyist that has rabidly campaigned against the RH Bill and Anti-Discrimination Bill in most congressional hearings. A “pro-life” advocate, Atty. Imbong has labeled the above bills as part of the Church-opposed DEATH bills, a cluster of measures promoting divorce, euthanasia, abortion, total reproductive health, and homosexuality (same-sex marriage).

Of the three candidates, ex-Sen. Kit Tatad is the most popular. A talking head of the Marcos regime, he was elected senator in 1992. He ran under the Partido ng Masang Pilipino of former President Joseph Estrada this election.

The three leaders of so-called pro-life movement have used reproductive health and gay rights as campaign issues and have the full backing of Christian and Catholic groups. That they lost indicates the absence of a Catholic vote and proves that bigotry is not seen by the electorate as a positive trait among politicians.

Meanwhile, of the twelve senatorial candidates that Reproductive Health advocates have endorsed, four are already in the winning circle, three of whom are incumbents: Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Sen. Pia Cayetano, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, and Bongbong Marcos.

Based on the latest unofficial count of the COMELEC, senatorial bet and RH Bill and Anti-Discrimination Bill author Risa Hontiveros, needs more than one million votes to be in the magic 12. She has committed to re-file the RH and Anti-discrimination bill if elected.

In the party-list race, Akbayan Party, which has championed the RH bill and the Anti-Discrimination Bill in the House of Representatives, is set to get at least two seats with close to 1 million votes. Ang Ladlad, which was initially denied accreditation by the COMELEC, has garnered 105,751 votes so far. This is roughly .39% of the 26.9 million votes that were cast in the PL race. Based on the Party-list law, a party needs to get 2% of the total votes to get one seat. (I shall provide an analysis on the so-called pink vote and the party-list race later).

With a margin of more than 100,000 votes, another pro-RH advocate, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, won the congressional race in his district. Rep. Lagman is a staunch champion of reproductive health.

The presidential and vice-presidential contests require a closer look. Runaway winner Noynoy Aquino of the Liberal Party toned down his position on reproductive health in the middle of the campaign and clarified that he is not an author of the RH bill.  To avoid the ire of the Catholic Church, he used ‘responsible  parenthood’ to explain his position on family planning, the same jargon that was used by RH authors to negotiate the passage of the RH bill during the 13th Congress.

He lost some support from the RH community because of this tactical retreat, which was unnecessary: everytime he’s asked of his position on RH, Noynoy would openly express his support for the promotion of artificial contraceptives and the use of state funds for artificial family planning methods. This led several Catholic bishops and catholic groups to endorse his main rival, Sen. Manny Villar, who declared his opposition to the RH bill, despite the close relationship between the Aqunio family to the Catholic church.

Noynoy Aquino’s position on gay rights is not known.

In the vice-presidential race, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay got the endorsement of Ang Ladlad party-list. It was a curious decision: as mayor, Binay has implemented a dress code that discriminated against gay and transgender employees in Makati City Hall. He is likewise silent on the issue of reproductive health. On the other hand, Sen. Mar Roxas openly supports artificial family planning methods. Roxas is also the principal author of the recently enacted Cheaper Medicines law, which increases access to life-saving and essential drugs, including anti-retrovirals (ARVs).

While Mayor Binay is ahead in the latest tally, the race is too close to call.

The over-all picture appears rosy for the RH bill and the Anti-Discrimination Bill, except for one potential party pooper: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo won in her district in Pampanga, and her allies have already announced that she will vie for the speakership. And without doubt, Speaker GMA is bad news for the advocates of RH Bill and the Anti-Discrimination Bill.