Violence Against Filipino GLBTQIs
The Years of Living Dangerously
By M.D. dela Cruz Tan
PUBLISHED: MARCH 2010

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But while gay-related crimes in the Philippines are often "blamed" on the gays – e.g. they picked up sex workers, and there were disagreements on the prices – Umbac believes pointing fingers on who to blame is not the way to go about this.  “It is a fact of life that there are risks; everyone makes the occasional mistake in choosing people to trust. But it cannot be blamed on one person or one sector. The perpetrators of crimes do not have a single profile. It cannot be blamed on gay men. It cannot be blamed on sex workers as well, who for all we know have also been robbed, killed, violated by their clients. The point is we are not after who to blame, but on ending the crimes and the hate that caused them. No one deserves to get hurt, or to be killed,” Umbac says.

SMALL(EST) STEPS

R-Rights’ Umbac says that there remain numerous challenges even in just documenting gay hate crimes in the Philippines – e.g. The absence of resources devoted to this (so that even in monitoring sensationalized news reports on acts committed against tomboys or baklas is not sustained); in fatal acts of violence, families are reluctant to admit that the victim is LGBT, in a bid to “save face”; identification of a victim as GLBTQI, and the crime as a hate crime unless the perpetrator says so (“And, strangely enough, some do admit that,” Umbac says), as opposed to random acts of violence not targeting a particular group; and the issue of language/terminology where identification of GLBTQIs are stereotypical, rendering bisexuals, femme lesbians, transgender males, and females as invisible or lumped into the generalizations (“For example, a victim can be identified as bakla because he had painted nails, had long hair, or wore lipstick,” Umbac says. “It is inaccurate. In addition, many victims do not have these characteristics”).

In 2008, the chief of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Leila de Lima, vowed to promote the rights and welfare of GLBTQIs, even as she lamented the non-passage of the Anti-Discrimination Bill in Congress.  “(Filipino GLBTQIs) remain one of the sectors most vulnerable to human rights abuses, such as discrimination in the workplace and even harassment in educational institutions,” she said, adding that even with the discrimination, even after submitted “close to a decade ago, (the proposed measure) is still pending in Congress.”

Sans legalized power to sanction abusers, what CHR can just do is to “encourage those who have been unfortunate enough to suffer discrimination or other human rights abuses to report these incidents to the Commission for investigation and other appropriate action."

Not much, truth be told – but better than nothing.

For Project Equality, a network of groups and individuals pushing for GLBTQI rights, in the failure of the national government to deal with GLBTQI issues, localizing efforts may be among the better (if not best) alternatives.  “We have seen in the last… years the openness of local governments to legislate GLBTQI rights at the local level," the group said in a statement released upon its establishment in late 2008, citing the case of Quezon City, which passed an ordinance prohibiting the discrimination of homosexuals in employment, as well as ordinances being tackled in Albay and in the City of Manila.

Progress is still pending.

“When the Anti-Discrimination Bill was drafted, we knew the next step would be an Anti-Hate Crime Bill as we expected backlash that would result from our small victories in our bid for recognition of our rights,” Umbac says, noting how numerous institutions still “perpetrate hate against us.”  But “from the events of 2009, the spate of killings and hateful statements of (legislators who want) to criminalize our unions, I believe that the time has come (to have a law against hate crimes).”

COMPLACENCY KILLS

Pilipino Star Ngayon (philstar.com) is among those to stress that, “ayon sa ulat, pangatlo na si SierVo sa ABS-CBN gay employee na pinaslang sa Quezon City sa nakalipas na dalawang taon (according to reports, SierVo is the third gay ABS-CBN employee murdered in Quezon City in the past two years).”  That report was from 2004 to 2006.

But ABS-CBN, itself, hasn’t taken up the cause of the murdered gays.

The murders haven’t stopped – e.g. Esguerra was killed only in January.
And they are unlikely to stop anytime soon, with the hate, in fact, continuing – e.g. Makati City, under former mayor Jejomar Binay, was able to institutionalize hate with a dress code barring gay men dressed as women from entering the premises of the city hall (August 16, 2000 – cited by C.R. Padilla and F.C. Vargas in Lesbians and the Philippine Law from Women’s Journal on Law and Culture, July-December 2001, Vol. 1, No. 1).

For Lacsamana, “at present, what we are doing is documenting the different cases, we plan to profile these to be used in possible dialogue with PNP, as well as the Commission on Human Rights."

With no relief coming anytime soon, Filipino GLBTQIs may, indeed, have to take it upon themselves to deal with the issue – e.g. as De Lima says, report, report, report (or: blog, blog, blog – IFTAS, et al “came out with an open later enjoining the community that if they heard of a case they can e-mail the group about them), with the logic being the bringing of the issue at the forefront.

Small steps, yes; but steps, nonetheless.

Back to Marcos, who said that GLBTQIs are now “considered weaker sex ng mga kalalakihan, at sinasamantala na rin ang kanilang kahinaan (by men who take advantage of this weakness),” she was said to have stated.  "Sayang naman dahil malaki ang naiiambag nila sa lipunan, at marami pa sana silang magagawa (Losing them is such a waste because they have contributed a lot to society, and they could have done more).”

“While we look to our legislators to come up with appropriate laws, and our law enforcers to keep us safe, I think the first line of defense is the community’s vigilance. We need to protect ourselves. I am looking for simplistic solutions like getting photos of persons our friends go out with. Yes, there is a premium for privacy, but we can’t be too careful; I like keeping my friends alive. It matters to me that future perpetrators know there is the risk of being caught; I hope it will somehow dissuade them. But I am also afraid that they could be so brazen as to actually taunt us and keep us in fear. I know the answers are out there, we have to find them. One thing for sure, we have to confront this as a community,” Umbac ends.