Abante rages on, excerpts from his speech

A battle to pass a human rights measure penalizing discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders is raging in the House of Representatives, where the incumbent Chairperson of the Committee on Human Rights, Rep. Bienvenido Abante (6th Distict, Manila City), is ironically blocking the bill's passage. In a controversial speech delivered last Monday, Rep. Abante, who is also a Baptist pastor, charged that the enactment of the bill would invite the wrath of God and would mean "death to the most cherished Filipino values of Godliness and moral rectitude."

LAGABLAB is calling anew for protest letters against Rep. Abante. We urge those who value human dignity and equality to demand for his resignation as the Chair of the House Committee on Civil, Political and Human Rights.

To read more and to download a copy of Abante's speech, visit http://lagablab.wordpress.com/2006/11/22/abante-speech/.

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Some quotes from Rep. Abante's speech:

"We cannot legislate on these. To abet sin and ungodliness is to invite the wrath of God upon ourselves and our God-loving nation."

"Mr. Speaker, my being a male is not my choice, that was Divine choice. Women being women is not their choice, that is Divine choice, and no human being has the right to go against God’s choice, Mr. Speaker."

"If I may quote, Genesis, Chapter I, when it spoke of creation, the Bible says, 'Male and female created Eden.' I do not find in the Bible that God created male and female and the in-betweens. Mr. Speaker, I find in the Bible that God created Adam and Eve. I do not find in the Bible that God created Adam and Steve."

"Mr. Speaker, I was told that the Lagablab Organization has declared an open war against me. That they will even campaign hard against me in my district. That I might not be voted upon. Huwag naman, Mr. Speaker. Hindi ko sila kaaway, Mr. Speaker. (I hope not, Mr. Speaker. They are not my enemies). But you know what, even if the Lagablab group has declared an open war against me, I declare to them the love of God because God loves them very much, Mr. Speaker."

"Thus, approving House Bill No. 634, Mr. Speaker, would mean death to the ideals and aspirations enshrined in our Constitution; death to a just and humane society that promotes the common good; death to the most cherished Filipino values of Godliness and moral rectitude."

"The Preamble is a living testament of our recognition of an Almighty God in a direct and personal way. In imploring the aid of Almighty God we manifested our unfaltering reliance upon Him and we recognize the reality that it is God Who guides the destinies of men and nations. In crafting laws, therefore, we must be guided by what is right before God. This bill, once signed into law, will encourage social aberrations as well as moral decadence through unconventional lifestyles that will come to pass as acceptable norms of conduct should this bill become a law."

[LAGABLAB Press Release, November 16, 2006]

Resign from Human Rights Committee, Rep. Abante urged

The Lesbian and Gay Legislative Advocacy Network (LAGABLAB-Pilipinas), a network of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations and activists, condemned today Manila Representative and House Committee on Human Rights Chair Bienvenido Abante for "his homophobia and atrocious ignorance of the basic principles of human rights." Yesterday, Rep. Abante questioned AKBAYAN Rep. Etta Rosales's sponsorship of HB 637, a proposed bill that seeks to penalize discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs).

LAGABLAB said that Abante's ridiculous opposition to a human rights measure like the Anti-Discrimination Bill betrays a fundamental disregard and disrespect of his mandate as the Human Rights Committee chair. "He should resign from his position if he himself cannot grasp the universality of human rights and human dignity," LAGABLAB Sec. Gen. Jonas Bagas said. "He should also undergo human rights education to understand that in our Constitution and in various international human rights agreements that the Philippines signed, equal protection from discrimination is guaranteed for all, regardless of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity."

"How can he promote human rights when he has no sense of empathy and compassion? Human rights are about recognizing that regardless of our differences and our diversity, we are all equal. Obviously, Rep. Abante has not experienced what it is like to be abused or to be discriminated," Bagas added.

LAGABLAB said that lesbians and gays lose their jobs, get expelled from schools, and experience physical abuse because the society still treats them as second class citizens. "There are narrow-minded people like Rep. Abante who help deepen the stigma against homosexuals. There are parents who beat their presumably gay or lesbian children to 'correct' their homosexuality or to stop them from cross dressing. When they're thrown away from their homes, or when homosexuals lose their jobs, they have to deal with discrimination's inhumane consequences," Bagas said.

Bagas also chided the solon for spreading false information on the bill. "The Anti-Discrimination Bill will not allow for the legal recognition of same-sex marriage. It is only about curbing discriminatory practices and policies. To claim otherwise is to commit a grave lie," he explained.

He clarified, however, that not all religious people or religious organizations are as bigoted as Rep. Abante. "During the 12th Congress, the bill was supported by other religious organizations, specifically the NCCP/UCCP and Iglesia ni Kristo. We in LAGABLAB are aware that there are religious denominations that are opposed to homosexuality but are nonetheless in solidarity with the LGBT community in protecting their rights and freedoms," Bagas said. He added that other human rights organizations are supporting and campaigning for the bill's passage, among them Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists.

LAGABLAB is urging lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders to write protest letters to Rep. Abante (visit www.lagablab.wordpress.com). "We will campaign against him in his own district and his own city. We don't take bigotry sitting down, especially those coming from public officials who enjoy the privileges provided by the taxes that we pay," Bagas warned.

LAGABLAB urged Congress to expedite the approval of the Anti-Discrimination Bill. "We've been pushing for this for six years. We urge the leadership of the House of Representatives to pass the bill before the end of the month. We also urge Senator Bong Revilla, who authored the Senate version of the bill, to push for its approval in the Senate. The plight of the LGBT community should not be ignored," Bagas appealed.

From Jonas: "Abante did it again"

Late breaking news: I first got a text message from indefatigable Jonas. Then this e-mail, providing the full details. In between rushing some documents, packing my things (I'm going to Legazpi today), I've been mumbling profanities - what a jerk!

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Hello folks, our dear friend from the sixth district of Manila did it again. inq7.net's Maila Ager wrote about the incident briefly, but here's a more detailed account on what happened.

Since there's an agreement with the House leadership that the bill would be approved this month, Etta delivered the sponsorship speech today. Everybody assumed that Abante was not there, and then suddenly, after Etta spoke, dumating si Abante, who immediately moved to have the session suspended.

While the session was suspended, a fuming Abante quickly approached Etta and said that the rights of lesbians and gays are not fundamentally HR issues. He said that repeatedly, and when Etta started arguing with him on the merits of the bill, dun na tumaas ang boses niya. Some reps had to go to him and pull him away from Etta.

When the session was resumed, Abante moved to adjourn the session. There was a quorum, though, and when he realized his folly, he moved to suspend the session again.

When it was resumed, he began questioning the technicality of Etta doing the sponsorship speech - she's no longer the chair, that he, as the committee chair, did not even know that the bill is in today's agenda, etc. Etta argued, however, that the rules provide that she, as one of the principal authors, may sponsor the bill. Also, the bill has been in the order of business since last year, so Abante should know that any moment the majority may tackle the bill.

The session was suspended again. Etta was told by the majority floor leader (Del De Guzman) that the bill will be tackled again next week, so the deliberation was suspended for the meantime.

While Etta was debating with Abante, Risa was moving around asking the other Reps to support the bill should Abante move to divide the House over the bill (he did not, which means he is aware that he would lose). Risa said that even the most homophobic reps said that they will support the bill. Rep. Villanueva of CIBAC, who's from the Jesus is Lord Movement, also committed to support the bill.

Anyway, after the ADB, the house majority tried to tackle the repro health bill. At sino ang humarang? Who else, but our dear Abante.

Anyway, i think we need to be more vocal about our support for the bill. Malaki ang naitutulong ni Etta, Risa and Mayong sa House of Reps, pero wala tayong ganyang allies sa Senate.

My concrete proposals:

Maglabas ang LAGABLAB ng press statement to condemn Abante's homophobia and ask him to resign as chair of the human rights committee. Baka pwedeng may similar statements din na ilabas ang ibang orgs? AI din? I will also ask the women's orgs kung pwedeng mag-issue din ng statement, since common enemy natin si Abante ngayon.

Next week, preferably on Monday, pwede ba na may mga at least 10 sa atin na pumunta ng House of Reps? Ipapa-recognize sa floor na guests ni Etta, that we are from a coalition supporting the bill.

Send letters of protest to Abante. Dapat ma-feel niya ang galit ng mga diosa. Even the conservative reps in Congress felt kanina na masyado siyang fundamentalist (merong ba ng moderate na fundamentalist? hmmm...). Baka pwedeng magpadala ng materials to prove na naabuso ang mga bakla at lesbiana, at duty nya na protektahan tayo from abuse.

Sana po ay pwede tayong kumilos for this.

Jonas

[INQ7 story here: Debate mars sponsorship of gay rights bill]

Having nothing else to do, I blog

I'm essentially doing nothing, I texted my hunny. He must be in his usual busy self in the office right now, he might not even have a wee bit of time to text me back. It's okay, I also do that to him sometimes.

This is a rare occurence for me, blogging in the middle of the day. Having nothing else to do, I might as well let my fingers do some keyboard talking. Ordinarily my workload is such that I only get to blog very late at night/very early in the morning of the next day. Today is not that day, but an idle body I may be right now, the mind still rages on with the twisting and turning of many unanswered questions... imagine a Rubik's cube as an unanswered question, then multiply them with any two-digit numeral. Haaay! Questions, questions, its desired answers would have made me more productive today. My semi-employed existence continues, and November came in with a vengeance for the many things that were left unresolved the month before.

While the Global Fund seemed to be running more smoothly now in our Southern Tagalog site, the Albay project is still in limbo. Our people are still waiting how the project will be getting started. Yesterday, the staff sent us budget requests for some activities; I don't even have their final workplans and budgets yet. I'm not one to be too restrictive on staff in doing their, er, stuff, but somehow for this case, I have to decide not to release funds without knowing for sure what will be coming in. Boring chore, someone's got to do it, and by the end of this week, I will become the "bad guy" in all of this. I can feel it coming.

The next round of Global Fund remains an unfulfilled promise (for those in the know, that would be Round 5). Its roll-out is such an abstract idea that a Kandinsky would have been more coherent, a Malevich more explicit. A few weeks ago I got a tip that the fund management group for this round will be publishing an ad calling for proposals on major newspapers supposedly first week of November. I've been buying newspapers for days now and nothing. I really don't appreciate seeing a growing stack of old newspapers at home. Aside from the stack being a muted mocking thing, painfully feeding into my growing desperation, I also get to reflect on all the wasted money it represented.

I don't have much use for newspapers, actually; my current events needs I mostly get from the Internet. When I do get to read newspapers, I get the news of the day bundled with unwanted icky printing ink, dizzying flip-and-search of continuations of stories, and frustrating realization of the increasing incidence of bad editing and wrong grammar of some journalists. With the Internet, it's a bit easier: my mouse doesn't smudge ink, reading is essentially scroll and click, and when bad writing/editing is emerging, the window can be easily closed, better writing of similar stories always a promise, always a Google away.

Things are not going so well in the PNAC either. I was supposed to have a very critical meeting yesterday for a major activity in December. The meeting was cancelled and I was not even informed. Later last night, a colleague called me up regarding our intended advocacy in line with the ASEAN Summit. Certain allegations floated around, most surprisingly, that PNAC no longer plans to go through with the advocacy. I wasn't informed of that either. Most irritably, people from whom we needed answers are not around. I was supposed to attend an emergency meeting about this ASEAN thingie today; had to be moved as other people already have their appointments set. So how about tomorrow then? People haven't yet replied. It all feels so disabling.

My own "24"

In the TV series "24," the lead character portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland will save someone or resolve something in a narrative time-lapse worth 24 hours every episode. There are days like this in my so-called professional life. Such was October 20 when I had again one of those marathon trips in line with official work, and some more for volunteer work, i.e. work to help out friends. I was up and about from 7AM, October 20 til 7AM the following day. What did I actually resolve? After several weeks of being in limbo with the second phase of the Global Fund project, we were suddenly jolted into having things start moving again; we were asked to make haste despite much of project modalities still being help up in air. Hay naku! All rush and tension were three-layer-cake-slicing thick in the air...

Whom did I actually save a la Kiefer/24 (though I could never compare myself to Kief's gracefully ageing beauty, but ageing nonetheless)? In an ambitious effort to up the ante on their Bohemian Fridays project at Rainbow Project in Malate, Gregg and other friends decided to enrich their project with a bit more art and activity. One was a photo exhibit, another was safer sex advocacy by way of condom distribution, on top of reading of erotic poetry. We were able to involve Dominique James into the stint, and he was so generous to offer us several of his work... I underscore generous here as he offered us 30 digital photography artpieces. For my part, I had my staff in Lucena (while we were meeting on the nitty-gritties of the Global Fund) assemble 100 condom sample packs not unlike a brisk cottage industry.

After the Lucena meeting, I rushed back to Manila, straight to Malate, a plastic bag of condoms on one hand, dirt and grime imported from Laguna and Quezon on clothes, face and god-knows-where-else. I was essentially in deflated, silent attendance during the Bohemian Friday activity (themed "Skin Light Words"). But the Milenyo-inspired curatorship of the artwork did catch my attention, glaring and pleading for justice. I gave Gregg my unsolicited two-cents and volunteered to help in redoing some curatorials, silently thanking DJ was then in New York doing pictorials. As matter of courtesy, and protection of fragile friendships, let some of the photos here clue in as to what happened as I was studying/reworking the curatorials. I was on the verge of accusing dear, sweet but bullying Gregg as the hell-bent, hell-sent curator. Sweet, regardless.

So beyond the 24-hour real-time time-lapse of our own real-life drama, reworking the art collection took several more nights, each night an ambitious attempt to finish all but only to realize later that attempts remained just ambition. Each night also had some unraveling scenarios that I'd rather not enumerate now, but have mentally reserved for potential slapstick sitcom racket material. In fairness, I was able to revisit some of the up-and-down challenges of volunteer work. I haven't been in a volunteer role for quite some time now. Doing it and being one helped me relearn some things I could factor in for management of future volunteerism in TLF SHARE. And oh, there was a lot of partying too... other than the usual weekend gay-time riot, our work serendipitously coincided with the G4M party and the "medieval" Halloween party.

Despite all exhaustion, frustration and prime-grade irritainment, I think the most saving that happened in my own version of 24 was my relationships with friends. Renewed connections, shared endeavors and moments, and new acquaintances have resuscitated my social life... it really felt wonderful to be back in the loop. I don't mind all that work (and there are surely a lot more pending); I like contributing my talent and skills when I know they're needed. Now, if only I could match my renewed social life with more sustainable funding - jusko, ang mahal na palang mag-socialize ngayon!