Philippines shuns UN calls to legalize same-sex marriage
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has ignored calls from a United Nations body to legalize same-sex marriage and enact other pieces of legislation that seek to protect the members of the LGBT community from discrimination and allow divorce in the country.
Such recommendations from other UN member-states during last week’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva were “not acceptable”, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said in his radio program on Saturday. The Philippines has the largest Catholic population in Asia.
At the same time, Remulla said the country also rejected proposals to allow abortion and divorce and enact the SOGIE bill, which seeks to protect the members of LGBT community from discrimination.
“They want the SOGIE Bill for same-sex marriage to have the same as in their countries. So, that’s not acceptable for us. They really want a lot to be implemented here,” Remulla said in Filipino. He led the country’s delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting last week.
“Divorce, even though we want it, needs thorough discussion, given that ours is a Catholic nation,” he added.
While there are city ordinances that protect the rights of the gay community, activists have expressed concern that the absence of an anti-discrimination legislation for LGBTs and stiff opposition from religious groups and conservative senators could offset any progress made at the local level.
Meanwhile, an opinion poll in 2018 showed 53% of adult Filipinos agreed that married couples who have already separated and can no longer reconcile should be allowed to divorce so they can legally get married again. — with a report from ONE News
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