AFP / Jam Sta.
Rosa
MANILA, Philippines — For Sen. Robinhood Padilla, it is “high time” for the Catholic-majority
Philippines to start giving same-sex couples the same rights married straight couples have long
enjoyed under the country’s laws.
“It is high time that the Philippines provides equal rights and recognition for couples of the same
sex with no prejudice as to sexual relationships are protected and recognized and given access
to basic social protection and security,” Padilla said in the explanatory note of Senate Bill No.
449.
He added, “Providing equal rights and privileges for same-sex couples will in no way diminish or
trample on the rights granted to married couples.”
It is not an entirely novel proposal as Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez (Davao del Norte) had filed a
similar measure in 2017 when he was speaker of the House of Representatives, which made it
easier for lawmakers in the lower chamber to support the bill.
But does Padilla, a neophyte senator, have the numbers this time for a civil union bill to be
passed in Congress?
Here’s what you need to know about moves to legalize same-sex civil unions in the Philippines.
How did civil union bills and similar measures fare
before?
Currently, there are two bills in Congress seeking to recognize same-sex civil unions in the
country. One is Padilla’s in the Senate and the other is Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy’s (Bagong
Henerasyon party-list) civil partnership bill in the House.
The Padilla and Herrera-Dy measures are similar in that they seek to institutionalize civil unions
for same-sex couples, with the goal of giving them the same rights that married straight couples
have enjoyed for so long under the country’s laws.
“It aims to be a landmark effort to provide civil rights, benefits and responsibilities to couples
previously unable to marry by giving them due recognition and protection from the State,”
Herrera-Dy said in the explanatory note of House Bill No. 1015.
Herrera-Dy had filed the same measure in the 18th Congress. The party-list lawmaker’s
measure never passed the population and family relations committee.
It was first introduced in the 17th Congress by Alvarez who, by virtue of his being House
speaker, managed to rally lawmakers behind it. Still, this was not enough for the measure to
pass the chamber as it got stuck in the women and gender equality panel.
Bills seeking to give some rights that married straight couples have, especially over property,
have been filed by Sen. Imee Marcos in the 18th Congress and Rep. Edcel Lagman (Albay) in
the 16th Congress, but these too never passed the committee level.
In the 14th Congress, then Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago filed a bill seeking to exempt
same-sex marriages solemnized abroad from the prohibition against it in the Family Code, but
this also did not hurdle the committee level.
What difference does civil union have with
marriage?
Currently, marriage as defined by the Family Code is restricted between a man and a woman.
This means that for now, same-sex couples cannot enjoy the same things that married straight
couples do including adopting children, getting labor benefits and privileges, getting tax
exemptions, consenting to medical procedures, and getting visitation rights in hospitals and
detention facilities.
Should the civil union bills pass Congress and are enacted into law, same-sex couples who
enter into a civil union would get the same benefits as married straight couples.
The key difference, really, between the two is the name — which appears to be lawmakers’ way
of dodging criticism from the religious sector that these proposals are trying to violate the
sanctity of marriage, which they believe to be exclusive between a man and woman.
