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May 13 2010
1 Comment
2010 elections, LGBT, LGBT rights, politics

The homophobes lost, but…

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). Continue reading →

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Dec 08 2009
33 Comments
Congress, LGBT, LGBT rights, politics

Bill criminalizing same-sex marriage filed in Congress

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante (Vice Chair of the Committee on Human Rights) filed a bill to criminalize same-sex marriage in the Philippines.

On its face, the bill is both farcical and dangerous. I’ll explain why later, but let’s go through the bill’s salient points first:

  • Over-all framework: In line with the constitutional declarations recognizing the sanctity of marriage, it seeks to criminalize the ‘highly immoral, scandalous, and detestable act’ of same-sex marriage.
  • It penalizes several acts:
  1. Failure to declare one’s true sex or gender for the purpose of securing a marriage license. The penalty is imprisonment from 7 to 12 years and a fine ranging from P50,000 to P100,000.
  2. the issuance of marriage license to persons of the same sex or gender, which it seeks to penalize with imprisonment from 6 to 10 years and a fine from P50,000 to P100,000.
  3. solemnization of marriage between persons of the same sex or gender (same penalty )
  4. cohabitation between persons of the same sex or gender who live together as ‘husband and wife’. This merits the highest penalty: imprisonment from 10 to 15 years and a fine from P100,000 to P150,000.
  • Offenders who are in public service shall be dismissed and barred from being employed by the  government. If the offender is legally authorized to solemnize marriage, then his license shall be revoked permanently.
  • If the offender is a foreigner, he or she shall be deported immediately.
  • If enacted, the bill would require the Local Civil Registrar to ascertain – thru the birth certificate – the true sex or gender of the parties applying for marriage license. Any marriage license issued or any marriage solemnized in violation of the law shall be deemed null and void.

downloadLet’s make a distinction between the intention of the bill and the its substance. The intention is clear: it wants to prohibit commitment ceremonies for LGBT couples. These ceremonies are not legally binding, but for a bigot like Abante such an expression of love must be grating that he feels it should be criminalized. Continue reading →

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Nov 13 2009
11 Comments
LGBT, LGBT rights

Bigotry in our ballots

In a decision dated November 11, 2009, the 2nd Division of the Commission on Elections denied the application for accreditation of Ang Ladlad Party-list, a party-list of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders, on moral grounds.

The decision was obviously penned by apes.

Signed by Commissioners Nicodemo Ferrer, Lucenito Tagle, and Elias Yusoph, the resolution quoted the Bible and the Koran to claim that Ang Ladlad tolerates immorality, and therefore should not be accredited. They said practicing homosexuals are a threat to the youth.

What these statements imply is that these commissioners have been denied something fundamental when they were still kids: love. I am sure that they were never hugged.

They find it perfectly acceptable to issue a resolution – a legal document – that sounds like a pastoral letter from CBCP or a manifesto from a fundamentalist group. They were quick to cite biblical verses or lines from the Koran, but forgot a basic tenet in our Constitution: that we are all equal, regardless of who we are.

They forgot that as commissioners, they are men of law, not men of faith. That the Commission on Elections is an institution of democracy, not a temple. That, as pointed out by an activist, they swore by the Bible to uphold the constitution, not the other way around. The issue is simple: use the law to determine whether a group should be accredited or not. There are no other standards – just the law.

How can we trust the COMELEC to modernize the electoral system when the commissioners still live in the Victorian era? Be wary, because those that that been mandated to automate the elections still believe that the Earth is the center of the universe. It is said that they weed out from the voters’ list women who are as outspoken as Etta Rosales, and they use tawas to make counting machines fool-proof and fraud-free.

But wariness is not enough. This bigotry is unacceptable. So I, Jonas Bagas, gay since birth, a practicing homosexual (occasionally during weekdays, but mostly during weekends), join my  fellow lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders condemning this farce. We won’t take this sitting down. I am a proud member of another LGBT-friendly party-list, AKBAYAN, and I will join Ang Ladlad in this struggle against bigotry in our ballots.

If you want to be part of this fight, then join us this Saturday, November 14, 2009, at 9 AM at the University Hotel of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, QC. We will fight back, and we will recruit more.

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Oct 01 2009
36 Comments
Congress, LGBT, LGBT rights, politics, religion

Rep. Abante’s ‘Act of God’

Rep. AbanteToday, Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, a Baptist Pastor-turned-legislator, pious and close to God, delivered a speech to declare that the Ondoy tragedy is an Act of God.

I would not debate on the issue of God and disasters. I won’t even go into this ‘holier-than-thou’ stance and claims that our so-called wicked ways led to this divine punishment. What I do know is that storms are getting deadlier because of climate change, a phenomenon caused by humans, by our lifestyle. From what I see, too,  garbage – plastics, in particular – clogged the Metro’s drainage, waterways, & creeks, and thus aggravating this problem.

But I will tell you more about Rep. Abante. Talk to him and you’d get the sense that he  seriously believes that he’s the voice of God, to the point that he treats his flatulence as a wisp of the Holy Ghost. He can silence you (Oh, that he did to several LGBT activists in a hearing of the House human rights committee), and he struts as if the post-deluge sun shines from his bottom.  His breath smells of incense.

Rep. Abante used to be the Chair of Congress’ Human Rights Committee. He blocked the passage of an anti-discrimination bill that protects the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders. He’s also rabidly against the Reproductive Health Bill. As the current chair of the Committee on Information in Congress, he  also championed a pro-censorship measure, the Right of Reply Bill.

For all his piety, he was put in the Hall of Shame of Human Rights Watch, a prestigious international human rights NGO based in New York.

But look – Rep. Abante may be close to God, but he’s no Noah. So when the floodwater was rising in Manila, when hundreds of families in his district were scampering to find floating devices, a Philippine Coast Guard rubber boat was reportedly deployed to fetch Rep. Abante’s son and his barkada in Philippine Columbian Sports Club in Paco, Manila.

That must be the so-called ‘Act of God’ that Rep. Abante is talking about, the one he’s really familiar with – when public officials play god, and use their power to push for their own interests over the survival of the people.

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