Human Rights Accord a Win for Gay Rights

The Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines hailed the inking of an agreement between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), saying the document can be the basis to seriously address the social concerns of sexual minorities. However, the group is alarmed over recent government actions that derail the substance of provisions contained therein.

Oscar Atadero, secretary-general of Progay, said that the comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in principle upholds the right of people of the same sex to legally register domestic partnership or even be united with the attendant full rights to adoption, conjugal reciprocity and transfer of property.

Part 3, titled Respect for Human Rights, says in Article 2, No. 22: The agreeement seeks to confront, remedy and prevent the most serious human rights violations in terms of civil and political rights as well as to uphold and promote the full scope of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to form a marital union and to found a family, and to ensure family communications and reunions.

The NDFP panel's chief negotiator, Fidel Agcaoili, said that the panel managed to bargain with little difficulty for the inclusion of the term "marital union" instead of marriage to render family rights inclusive to couples of the same genital sex. Under the existing Family Code, marriage is defined as a union between a male and a female.

The government panel feared offending the Catholic hierarchy, Agcaoili revealed, but relented when the NDFP invoked the separation of church and state and reminded the panel that not all Filipinos are Catholics.

The agreement also reiterated the right to equal protection of the law and against any form of discrimination on the basis of gender and against any incitement to such discrimination.

"The document does not assure enactment of an enabling law by a post-Ramos government that would elevate functioning partnerships into legal marriages and that can be mutually recognized in a growing number of industrial societies. Nevertheless, the rights of gay and lesbian Filipinos are finally addressed in a forum that seeks a final solution to the injustices of a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and that is an incremental victory," Atadero added.

But Progay expressed alarm over fresh violations of socio-economic rights on the part of the Ramos regime days after the signing, such as the reversal by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) of the redistribution of the Hacienda Looc to 10,000 peasants in Nasugbu, Batangas. Progay said that the government clearly still favors landlords and foreigners, in this case the Fil-Estate
development firm, over the people's rights to land, food, jobs and justice.

Atadero says there are thousands of same-sex couples and households led by single gay parents or caregivers which function as family units. According to Progay, some of these families are rearing or rehabilitating children
orphaned or abandoned by their original families due to the economic crisis unleashed by the  US-Ramos regime against the poor in both urban and rural areas.###