Local News: Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Approved on First Reading
Councilor Em Legaspi Ang, chair of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Gender and Development, proposed an ordinance prohibiting discrimination in Bacolod City on the basis of disability, age, health status, sexual orientation and gender identity, ethnicity and religion and providing penalties for violations. The proposed ordinance was passed on first reading by the Sangguniang Panlungsod.
The Philippine Constitution provides that the state values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the law. The enactment of measures that protect and enhance the rights of the people to human dignity, reduce social, economic, and political inequalities, and remove cultural inequities shall be given highest priority.
Councilor Ang said that the Philippines is a state party and a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention Against Torture (CAT), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRoC), the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)1 that seek to eliminate all forms of discrimination and abuse.
She added that every person is given the right to equal access to opportunities, to social and economic benefits without prejudice and discrimination as manifested in a democratic country and as enshrined under the Philippine Constitution.
The stigma and discrimination is still very much prevalent especially with persons with disability, senior citizens, children, youth, persons with HIV, women, lesbians, gay, bisexuals, transgender, people with different spiritual faith and indigenous persons.*
