SOGIE BILL

17th Congress

In 2017, House Bill No. 4982, sponsored by Dinagat Islands Rep. Kaka Bag-ao, who has been the principal
author of the measure since her first term, Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman, Akbayan Party-List Rep. Tom
Villarin, and several others, was approved on third and final reading for the first time since 2001[4] with
198 members of the House of Representatives voting for the bill and none opposing it, a historic pro-
LGBT move from the House of Representatives.[5]

The counterpart bill in the Senate, filed by Senator Risa Hontiveros (the first Akbayan senator), was in
the period of interpolations by May 2018. It is backed by Senators Loren Legarda, Grace Poe, Nancy
Binay, Franklin Drilon, Bam Aquino, Chiz Escudero, Ralph Recto, Sonny Angara, JV Ejercito, Francis
Pangilinan, Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Leila de Lima, although de Lima is barred from voting on the bill as
she is currently in police custody.[6][7] It was opposed by Senators Tito Sotto, Manny Pacquiao, Cynthia
Villar, and Joel Villanueva.[8] Ironically, Villanueva has signed up as a 'co-author' of the bill he
opposes.[9] Other senators such as Win Gatchalian, Koko Pimentel, Antonio Trillanes, Panfilo Lacson,
and Richard J. Gordon have not yet expressed their support or rejection of the bill. Senator Trillanes is
currently facing cases that may put him in jail, which may make him ineligible to vote for the bill like
senator De Lima if ever he is arrested. Additionally, Alan Peter Cayetano and Gregorio Honasan no
longer have voting rights on Senate measures as they declined to be part of the presidential cabinet.[10]
All in all, out of the existing 24 Senate seats: 12 seats support and can vote on the bill; 1 seat supports
but cannot vote on the bill (although the number may rise to 2); 4 seats oppose and can vote on the bill;
5 seats can vote on the bill but have not yet given their positions on it (although the number may be
reduced to 5); and 2 seats are de facto vacated.[11] For a bill to pass the Senate, it needs a vote of 50%
(12) of the body, plus one (1) vote for a total of thirteen (13) votes. The SOGIE Equality Bill currently is
supported by 12 seats that are allowed to vote on the measure.[12]

The bill is also supported by the Catholic student governments of University of the Philippines-Diliman
(UPD, Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), De La Salle University(DLSU)-Manila, De La Salle - College of
St. Benilde (CSB), Far Eastern University (FEU), Miriam College (MC), St. Scholastica's College (SSC)-
Manila and San Beda University (SBU). The longest running LGBT student organization UP Babaylan has
also been supporting the bill ever since it was first filed.,[13] as well as known celebrities and icons such
as Heart Evangelista, Bianca Gonzalez, Iza Calzado, Charo Santos-Concio, Dingdong Dantes, Joey Mead
King, Divine Lee, Karen Davila, Chot Reyes, Tootsy Angara, BJ Pascual, Samantha Lee, Christine Bersola-
Babao, Rajo Laurel, Tim Yap, Anne Curtis, Mari Jasmine, Laureen Uy, Pia Wurtzbach, Lorenzo Tañada III,
Vice Ganda, Arnold Van Opstal, and Chel Diokno.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]

In March 2018, a small group of Christians protested at the Senate against the SOGIE bill by calling the
proposed legislation an 'abomination', adding that homosexuality is allegedly a 'sin' citing that their
'hate' is allegedly credible because it is supposedly written in the Bible and that viewing that identifying
as part of the LGBT community is a supposedly a 'lifestyle'.[23] The group also claimed that the bill
relates to same-sex marriage, which is not found anywhere within the bill.[24] Senators Villanueva,
Gatchalian, and Villar spoke against same-sex marriage after the protest.[25] In May 2018, senator Tito
Sotto, who opposes the SOGIE bill, became the new Senate President. In an interview, Sotto was asked
on the bill's passage, to which he responded, "Not in this congress."[26]

In July 2018, various high-profile celebrities rallied for the passage of the SOGIE bill. They also called out
senators Sotto, Pacquiao, and Villanueva to end the debates and pass the proposed legislation.[27] In
August 2018, on the height of the bill's postponed debates, various discrimination events against the
Filipino LGBT community surfaced, causing public calling for the passage of the SOGIE Equality Bill in the
Senate.[28][29] Numerous influential personalities, including political allies of the three senators who
oppose the bill, sided with the calls to pass the landmark proposal.[30][31][32]

In January 2019, fake news and chain mails[33] claiming that there are 'satanic'[34] and 'same-sex
marriage' provisions in the SOGIE bill began circulating, a move to dislodge the bill's progress.[35][36]

In May 2019, the SOGIE Equality Bill officially became the longest-running bill under the Senate
interpellation period in Philippine history. Supporters of the bill have remarked that the prolonged
interpellation was intended by the dissenters to block the passage of