More LGBTQIA+ killings normalized under ‘Bagong Pilipinas’ of Bongbong Marcos?
A transgender human rights activist, Ali Macalintal, was gunned down by a still-unidentified gunman while she was inside an acupuncture clinic in General Santos City. Though she was taken to the nearest hospital, Macalintal was pronounced dead on arrival after sustaining three gunshot wounds to her body. Her assailant – who fled the scene of the crime on a motorcycle – is still at large.
Macalintal, a former broadcaster at RPN XDX, was the former deputy secretary general of Karapatan SOCCSKSARGEN, helping organize and participate in a handful of fact-finding missions in Mindanao. In 2017, she also stood with the Moro and Indigenous Peoples/Lumads during the Lakbayan ng Pambansang Minorya, particularly at the peak of the militarization of the Moro-Lumad community at the height of former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao.
Interviewed by Outrage Magazine in 2019, Macalintal said she became a human rights activist due to the harshness of life particularly to those at the fringes of society.
As a transgender woman following Islam, for instance, she said she knew the “double discrimination” encountered by Muslims who are also LGBTQIA+ – i.e. you get discriminated for being a Muslim, and then you get discriminated as LGBTQIA+. This does not include (even) further discrimination from within the minority communities one belongs to – e.g. Muslims can discriminate LGBTQIA+ people; just as LGBTQIA+ people can also discriminate Muslims.
Macalintal always emphasized the need for LGBTQIA+ struggle to be holistic.
“Mahirap sa LGBTQIA+ community na kumilos na sila lang (It’s hard for the LGBTQIA community to fight on its own),” she said. “Naniniwala aka sa sama-sama nating pagkilos (I believe in unified struggle).”
This is because, she said, the struggle for social justice of the LGBTQIA community is no different from the struggle of other minority sectors – e.g. Indigenous Peoples, women, youth, persons with disability, seniors, Muslims, et cetera.
“We will succeed only if the effort is multi-sectoral,” she said.
But according to Karapatan, Macalintal previously received threats to her person – e.g. via text message in February 2019, and even prior to her shooting, when she was reportedly accosted by also an unknown assailant with face covering and was on board a motorcycle without a plate.
The killing of Macalintal happened as the world observes LGBTQIA+ Pride, highlighting the continuing difficulties encountered by LGBTQIA+ Filipinos.
That the assailant managed to escape is also an affront at the Philippine National Police (PNP), particularly since Gen. Nicolas Torre III boasted the supposedly newly-implemented “5-minute response policy” to deal with crimes in the country.
Earlier, on June 19, a 37-year-old LGBTQIA+ person, Cathy Rivera, was found dead inside her home in Purok 2C, Barangay Katangawan, also in General Santos City. Police have yet to determine the exact cause of death. Meanwhile, in the Province of Cagayan, the lifeless body of a transgender woman – Gian Molina from Peñablanca – was found by a river near a cornfield in Amulung. The police is – similarly – still clueless about what really happened.
Commenting on Macalintal’s killing, LGBTQIA+ organization Bahaghari stated that this is also “emblematic of the situation of media workers and the state of press freedom in the Philippines. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) has recorded a 44% increase on attacks against media workers from 1 July 2022 to 30 April 2025, logging a whopping number of 184 cases. Of those, 78 or 42% involved State actors. It has also not escaped our notice the continued censorship on alternative media outfits and unjust imprisonment of Frenchie Mae Cumpio. Ali was the 7th media professional killed since the Marcos Jr. administration, although only five were media work-related”.
For Reyna Valmores Salinas, Bahaghari chairperson: “Ali was a steadfast and outspoken human rights advocate” who was “never afraid to speak truth to power and expose uncomfortable truths.” As such, “we lost a powerful voice in advancing LGBTQIA+ rights in the country. Ali’s bravery will not be forgotten by the community during Pride month”.
