Joel Villanueva urges respect for religion in dismissal of LGBTQ+ rights
MANILA, Philippines — Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva appealed Monday for people to respect religious beliefs as he attacked marriage equality and trans inclusion in defense of his move to send the SOGIE Equality Bill to the powerful rules panel that he chairs.
SOGIE stands for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression Equality and the contentious bill seeks to prohibit discrimination based on these. Opponents of the bill claim to support separate legislation that would prohibit discrimination on more grounds, including SOGIE and religious beliefs, which they said would protect more people.
"If you cannot respect the word of God, if you cannot respect the Bible, please respect the beliefs of our countrymen. We cannot just disregard these and say that this is because this is being done in other countries," Villanueva said partly in Filipino in a media interview.
Villanueva is the son of Jesus is Lord megachurch founder Eddie Villanueva, who is a member of the House of Representatives and who has also attempted to delay deliberations on the measure.
The Constitution protects the right to the free exercise of religion, which includes the right not to believe in one.
No same-sex marriage provision
The senator went on to claim that the "bottomline" of the SOGIE bill is same-sex marriage, which he said would destroy the family and would violate the country’s laws.
"We cannot pass this kind of legislation and just let things be," he said. "We will destroy all of the laws we passed. That’s the bottomline of this. They want same-sex marriage? Let’s not fool each other."
Nothing in the SOGIE bill under Committee Report No. 15 says anything about same-sex marriage. Under the Family Code, marriage can only be between a man and a woman.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Same-sex civil unions in the Philippines
"As I explicitly stated during my manifestation, this is not the bill that will grant marriage licenses. It is that simple and that clear. In fact, marriage licenses are explicitly excluded in the committee report," Sen. Risa Hontiveros said in a statement.
She continued, "Laws are worded to be as precise as possible, so that interpretation is unambiguous. Any ordinary lawmaker should know that, let alone a majority leader."
Attack on trans inclusion
Sen. Villanueva also assailed trans-inclusive education, raising as one of his concerns about the SOGIE bill its supposed infringement on academic freedom in cases where "your daughter … [who] feels she is a man” would want to study in an all-male school."
Hontiveros has said that she has agreed with religious groups to explicitly include the principle of academic freedom in the SOGIE bill and reconsider criminal liabilities for schools that impose heteronormative — for example, skirts for girls and pants for boys — uniform requirements.
But she is insisting on penalizing the expulsion of students based on their SOGIE "because this is not in accord with the best interest of the child."
The Senate majority leader also raised objections over the entry of “a certain guy [who feels] like a woman” in female restrooms, which he said may make women uncomfortable.
He also claimed that the bill will prevent people from reading the Bible and exercising their faith, when the measure contains no such provision. Such a proivision would be unconstitutional in the first place.
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No delaying?
Despite having moved to send the SOGIE bill to the rules committee for further study which effectively prevented Hontiveros from sponsoring the measure in plenary to start debates, he insisted he is not delaying the proposal, calling such insinuations "irresponsible."
He also said there has only been one hearing on the SOGIE bill and claimed that stakeholders were not able to air their side.
He did not raise the same concern when the SIM Registration Act, identified as a priority by the Marcos administration, hurdled the Senate even if only one hearing was conducted and only those in favor of the proposal were present.
'We should go all out against discrimination'
He said more senators were in favor of a "holistic" anti-discrimination law, one which does not just tackle SOGIE-based discrimination. “When it comes to discrimination, we should go all out against discrimination. We should not be selective,” he said.
But he said that if a majority of the members of the rules committee, which include Hontiveros, would vote to have the SOGIE bill reported out in plenary, he would abide by the decision as he stressed that he does not rule over the panel.
However, when asked for a schedule for when the rules committee will deliberate on the proposal, Sen. Villanueva said: "We’ll see."
"Inflation hit 8.7% and what is sad is that our target is just 2% to 4%. Again, these are very much more important issues that we need to tackle than give priority to those able and capable to work, earn and have a more prosperous life," he said.
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