CONGRESSIONAL INTEGRATED HIGH SCHOOL

Senior High School

Poinsettia St. Via Verde Village, San Agustin II, Dasmarinas
City, Cavite

English for Academic and Professional

Purposes
A Position Paper about SOGIE Bill in the Philippines

Shalimar Aramil-Flores
EAPP Teacher

Tumbagahan, Megie Boy D.

STEM 12-1

September 16, 2019

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 SOGIE Bill: the answer in Equal rights and freedom of expression in the
Philippines?

Is SOGIE Bill would be the answer to the Equal rights that LGBTQ+ seeking for?
According to Tubeza (2013), the Philippines has gained its ranking as one of the world's
few gay-friendly nations. Out of the thirty-nine countries covered by the worldwide study,
only seventeen nations had majorities that accepted homosexuality, with the Philippines
ranking tenth out of seventeen. Despite its religiosity, the Philippines is one of the nations
in the globe where there is a high level of government recognition of homosexuals. But
why there is SOGIE Bill today? In legislative history, late Senator Miriam Defensor
Santiago and former Akbayan representative Loretta Rosales, under the 11th Congress,
filed the first version of the SOGIE Equality Bill in the year 2000. Refiled in the 14th
Congress, the bills only reached the level of the commission. Almost two decades later,
on the 13th of August, Gretchen Diez is blocked by a female janitress from using a
woman's toilet. The janitress apologizes, but Diez pledges to continue fighting for the
freedoms of her fellow LGBTQ+ members (Abad, 2019) . However, citing two versions of
the bill in the legislature — House Bill 4982 or the "SOGIE Equality Act" and Senate Bill
935 or the "Anti-Discrimination Act "— I discovered it meaningless because there is
already current legislation that protects the rights of citizens against discrimination.
SOGIE Bill is not necessary to be approved and we don’t need it, because Filipinos are
inherently accepting of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders and our government
already provides the Anti-Discrimination Act for all of us, so what’s the purpose of creating
a new one
Elemia (2019) reported that, senator Hontiveros said that if the bill passed into law, it
would ensure that stigma and hate would not hinder LGBTQ+ from accessing education,
healthcare, employment, and other basic rights."Globally, fundamental victories were
accomplished in terms of securing LGBT rights and welfare, more notably an adoption or
strengthening of their respective anti-discrimination laws," Hontiveros quoted in her
sponsorship speech. "However, the same thing can't be said for the Philippines. For the
last 17 years, Congress has failed to pass the anti-discrimination bill. The LGBT
community cannot wait any longer." In counterpart to that, an active LGBTQ+ member
oppose that statement by posting his stand on his Facebook account, he pointed out
“There are victims of discrimination because of their height, but do we need an Anti-Short
Stature Discrimination Act? There are victims of discrimination because they are fat, but
do we need an Anti-Obese Discrimination Act?”(Capitulo, 2019). We do not need SOGIE
equality law because the Filipinos accept lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders
already. Our society is innately tolerant of LGBT people. Proof of this would be the many
Filipino LGBTQ+ people who are very effective in their respective areas: business, trade,

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media, education, fashion, healthcare, law, I.T., science and technology, arts, show
business and even politics and many more. The election of the honourable representative
of the first district of Bataan, Rep. Geraldine B. Roman, is another validation. The
Philippines has also continuously been acknowledged as one of the gay-friendly nations
in the globe and one of the gay-friendly nations in Asia. In many homes and families
across the nation, LGBTQ+ people are recognized and loved, with many serving as main
breadwinners and caregivers. As a witness of it, I do have LGBTQ+ freinds, and I never
encountered any increasing discrimination to them, and me also I do respect them,
whether in school or at community. I can say that they are friendly and approachable so
who am I to discriminate them.

These proposed bills, when implemented in law, may be used as tools for stifling or
violating our liberty of religion and our liberty to live out our faith. It will surely affected
some sectors if the bill enacted. Proponents of the bill have always argued that ensuring
non-discrimination for LGBTQ+ people on the grounds of their sexual orientation and
gender identity will not undermine or undermine the rights of others. Again, we don’t need
SOGIE Bill, because why do we need it? If there is an existing law that already made for
the sake of all of us.

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REFERENCE:
Abad, M (2019). TIMELINE: SOGIE equality in the Philippines. Retrieved from https://ww
w.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/238593-timeline-sogie-equality-philippines

Capitulo, R (2019). An LGBT who is Anti- “Anti-SOGIE Discrimination Bills”

https://web.facebook.com/ryan.capitulo/posts/10213435287586877.

Elemia, C (2019). After 17 years, LGBT anti-discrimination bill up for Senate debate.
Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/nation/156139-lgbt-anti-discrimination-
bill-senate-plenary.

Tubeza, P (2013). PH ranks among most gay-friendly in the world. Retrieved from
https://globalnation.inquirer.net/76977/ph-ranks-among-most-gay-friendly-in-
the-world.
House of Representatives (2017). SOGIE. Retrieved from http://www.congress.gov.ph/l
egisdocs/first_17/CR00101.pdf.

House of Representatives (2016). PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF

SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER IDENTITY OR EXPRESSION (SOGIE)
AND PROVIDING PENALTIES. Retrieved from https://www.senate.gov.ph
/lisdata/2517921693!.pdf