NEWS RELEASE
ProGay:
Hate Crime Bills Timely But Not Enough
Manila Standard
3 August 1999, page 2
THE Progressive Organization
of Gays in the Philippines said proposals from the Senate to pass bills
penalizing hate crimes against gays and other minorities are welcome
but do not go far enough in addressing the root causes of hatred between
sectors of society.
- The ProGay movement was reacting
to a proposal from Senate President Blas Ople to identify certain
violent acts against social groups as hate crimes, modelled after
laws in the US. The movement urged the Senate to instead devote
its efforts toward blocking Charter changes that would be more inimical
to gays in particular and people in general.
Last week, narcotics PO1
Allan Esparrago tried to force Lorenzo Abunales, a gay person, to perform
oral sex on him in Mandaluyong City. When Abunales refuses, Esparrago
alegedly vented his ire on Elizabeth Mendoza and her son Leonardo, relatives
of the gay person.
- ProGay earlier issued a statement
urging the Philippine National Police (PNP) to overhaul its abusive
attitude toward the poor, gay men, and women. #
Attachment
Cop
Goes Berserk as Gay Refuses Sex
By Philip Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer, 1 August 1999
AN ANTI-DRUG policeman went berserk early yesterday
morning after a gay man refuses to perform oral sex on him in exchange
for shabu in Barangay Barangka in Mandaluyong City.
- PO1 Allan Esparrago, 29-year-old intelligence operative of the
Metro Manila Narcotics Office, was allegedly drunk when he asked
Lorenzo Abunales to do it.
In return, he promised Abunales to give him the prohibited
substance. It was not clear though if Abunales was hooked on drugs.
- Shocked of Esparrago's indecent proposal, Abunales ran away.
Abunales' cousin Leonardo Mendoza said he heard Abunales
asking for help. Mendoza then confronted Esparrago.
- Embarrassed that even a gay man would refuse him and that the
whole barangay would know about it, Esparrago punched Mendoza.
Before giving Mendoza a second serving, Esparrago, of
No. 57, Pvt. P. Cruz Street, also in Barangka, denied Abunales' charge.
"I did not know what he was talking about," he told Mendoza.
- Esparrago later poked his .9 mm service firearm on Mendoza and
told him to lie face down on the street.
In no time, Mendoza heard Esparrago firing his gun to
the ground. Before Mendoza could lift his face, Esparrago kicked Mendoza's
back.
- Not content, Esparrago then turned his ire on Mendoza's mother
who was standing outside their house. He kicked her and dragged
her for several meters until they were both in front of the house
of Mandaluyong Vice-Mayor Jesus Cruz.
Esparrago banged her face on the gate and pointed his
gun on her head, she said.
- Mendoza's mother was so scared.
-
- "He abused me like an animal. He could have killed me,"
she said later.
Esparrago stopped only when they saw a police mobile
car patrolling the area.
- Police confiscated Esparrago's service firearm, two magazines
with live ammunitions, police badge, and a black belt.#
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