SOGIE Equality Bill

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The SOGIE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and 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.[1] The current versions of the bill are
championed by Kaka Bag-ao, Geraldine Roman, and Tom Villarin in the House of Representatives, and
Risa Hontiveros in the Senate. The version in the House of Representative passed its third reading most
recently on September 20, 2017, but died in the Senate.[2] It has been refiled for the 118th Congress.

Legislative history

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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. Similar measures were filed by other senators in the 15th and 16th congresses which failed to
see progress.[3] The bill was re-filed by Defensor-Santiago in every congressional period in the Senate
until the end of her last term in 2016. The counterpart bill in the House was also filed continuously by
the representatives of Akbayan party-list.

17th Congress

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In 2017, House Bill No. 4982, sponsored by Dinagat Islands Rep. Kaka Bag-ao, who has been the principal
author of the measure since her first term, Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman, Akbayan Party-List Rep. Tom
Villarin, and several others, was approved on third and final reading for the first time since 2001[4] with
198 members of the House of Representatives voting for the bill and none opposing it, a historic pro-
LGBT move from the House of Representatives.[5]

The counterpart bill in the Senate, filed by Senator Risa Hontiveros (the first Akbayan senator), 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.[6][7] It was opposed by Senators Tito Sotto, Manny Pacquiao, Cynthia Villar,
and Joel Villanueva.[8] Ironically, Villanueva has signed up as a 'co-author' of the bill he opposes.[9]
Other senators such as Win Gatchalian, Koko Pimentel, Antonio Trillanes, Panfilo Lacson, and Richard J.
Gordon have not yet expressed their support or rejection of the bill. Senator Trillanes is currently facing
cases that may put him in jail, which may make him ineligible to vote for the bill like senator De Lima if
ever he is arrested. Additionally, Alan Peter Cayetano and Gregorio Honasan no longer have voting rights
on Senate measures as they declined to be part of the presidential cabinet.[10] 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 (although the number may rise to 2); 4 seats oppose and can vote on the bill; 5 seats can vote on
the bill but have not yet given their positions on it (although the number may be reduced to 5); and 2
seats are de facto vacated.[11] 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.[12]

The bill is also supported by the Catholic student governments of University of the Philippines-Diliman
(UPD, 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). The longest running LGBT student organization UP Babaylan has
also been supporting the bill ever since it was first filed.,[13] as well as known celebrities and icons such
as Heart Evangelista, Bianca Gonzalez, Iza Calzado, Charo Santos-Concio, 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,
Vice Ganda, Arnold Van Opstal, and Chel Diokno.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]

In March 2018, a small group of Christians protested at the Senate against the SOGIE bill by calling the
proposed legislation an 'abomination', adding that homosexuality is allegedly a 'sin' citing that their
'hate' is allegedly credible because it is supposedly written in the Bible and that viewing that identifying
as part of the LGBT community is a supposedly a 'lifestyle'.[23] The group also falsely claimed that the
bill relates to same-sex marriage, which is not found anywhere within the bill.[24] Senators Villanueva,
Gatchalian, and Villar spoke against same-sex marriage after the protest.[25] In May 2018, senator Tito
Sotto, who opposes the SOGIE bill, became the new Senate President. In an interview, Sotto was asked
on the bill's passage, to which he responded, "Not in this congress."[26]

In July 2018, various high-profile celebrities rallied for the passage of the SOGIE bill. They also called out
senators Sotto, Pacquiao, and Villanueva to end the debates and pass the proposed legislation.[27] 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.[28][29] Numerous influential personalities, including political allies of the three senators who
oppose the bill, sided with the calls to pass the landmark proposal.[30][31][32]

In January 2019, fake news and chain mails[33] falsely claiming that there are 'satanic'[34] and 'same-sex
marriage' provisions in the SOGIE bill began circulating, a move to dislodge the bill's progress.[35][36]

In May 2019, the SOGIE Equality Bill officially became the longest-running bill under the Senate
interpellation period in Philippine history. Supporters of the bill have remarked that the prolonged
interpellation was intended by the dissenters to block the passage of the historic anti-discrimination bill.
[37] The bill's principal author and sponsor in the Senate, senator Risa Hontiveros, has again called on
her Senate colleagues to formally close the interpellation period, so that the bill can finally be subject for
amendments and voting.[38] In June 2019, with the end of the session of the 17th Congress, the SOGIE
Equality Bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression --
after the lawmakers failed to tackle the bill in this session of the Senate of the Philippines. The Senate
version of the bill was first filed in August 11, 2016. It was sponsored by Risa Hontiveros in December 14
of the same year. The bill has become one of the slowest-moving bills in the country’s history. The passed
house version of the bill would have penalised discrimination with a fine of not less than ₱100,000 but
not more than ₱500,000, or imprisonment of not less than one year but not more than six years or both,
depending on the court's decision. [39][40] however, she said the bill had gained new allies and wider
acceptance among policy makers and the public and that she is confident the bill will pass in the next
Congress.[41] The bill was archived, and the bill must again be refiled in the 18th Congress, starting over
the one to three-year process of enactment again.[42]

18th Congress

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In early July 2019, Senator Sonny Angara introduced a new proposal to Congress. "Any form of
discrimination threatens social stability and economic progress in the Philippines, making it imperative
that discrimination—or any act that establishes, promotes and perpetuates standing inequalities and
disregards the right to 'equality of treatment' afforded by the 1987 Constitution—be reduced", Angara
argued. The measure would prohibit unfair discrimination based on, among other categories, sex, sexual
orientation and gender identity and expression.[43]
See also

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LGBT rights in the Philippines

References