Rainbow hope.
Various local government units (LGUs) are including LGBTQIA people both as beneficiaries and as implementers of the Philippine government’s Covid-19 Social Amelioration Program (SAP) implementation.
In Metro Manila, Pasig City includes LGBTQIA partners as beneficiaries in its Supplemental Social Amelioration Program (SSAP), which builds on the SAP.
Not all citizens are covered by the SAP, so Pasig City’s LGU released its SSAP to help families get by at the time of Covid-19. A total of P8,000 will be given to each family to aid with any expenses during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ).
Based on the listing of beneficiaries from the LGU, LGBTQIA partners with a child/children” are qualified, specifically if the couple lives together and they have a child/children whose surname/s follow/s one of them. “Ito ay kinikilalang pamilya (They are considered a family).”
Probably also affecting LGBTQIA families is the LGU’s inclusion of solo parents among the SSAP beneficiaries, particularly single parents (of either sex) whose child/children lives/live with him/her. Not all LGBTQIA parents are in relationships, though they may also be raising a child/children and may encounter difficulties due to the novel coronavirus.
But Pasig City is not the only LGU recognizing LGBTQIA families.
In Quezon City, it was earlier reported to Outrage Magazine that, because of the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance (ADO), SAP is also given to LGBTQIA people in need.
Meanwhile, in Davao City in Mindanao, south of the Philippines, Mayor Sara Duterte said in a radio interview that “the LGBT sector would be the best to understand (issues pertaining ) being inclusive.”
And so Duterte – daughter of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte – is tapping the city’s LGBTQIA network in rice distribution, the fifth round the LGU is doing this.
This is also Duterte’s move to remove the “political structure” in aid-giving because of the “recurring problem” of those handing out aids to only help those that they know.
Duterte said she already tasked the LGBTQIA people involved in the rice distribution not to favor only LGBTQIA people, but “find the people who (really have nothing).”
Both Quezon City and Davao City have ADOs; but Pasig City still has no non-discrimination policy to protect the human rights of LGBTQIA Filipinos.
