Barangay Greater Lagro in Quezon City passed on June 16 an anti-discrimination ordinance (ADO) that prohibits discrimination in the barangay level on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI).
Sponsored by Barangay Council member Ma. Lucky Rolynne Elisse Tiangco and co-sponsored by council members Romeo Buenafe, Jr., Leo Garra Jr., Benjamin Pangilinan, Abelard Langcay, Crisente Albert Pedro, and Jan Edward Tolentino, this ADO is among the ADOs that solely focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Other ordinances are not LGBT-centric; instead, they lump LGBT people with other minority groups, including – and among others – indigenous peoples, persons with disability/ies, religious minorities, and those with health conditions, such as HIV.
Barangay Ordinance 005, S-2014 states that “ though the Quezon City had an Ordinance # SP 1309, Series 2003, entitled ‘ An ordinance prohibiting All Acts of Discrimination Directed Against Homosexuals in Any Office in Quezon City, Whether in Government or in the Private sector, and Providing Penalities for Violation Thereof,” this only dwells on the rights on employment of LGBTs… in spite of the fact that the LGBT sectors suffered from so much discrimination of various forms, no laws protecting their human rights had been legislated.”
The ADO specifically prohibits the refusal to provide goods or services and/or imposing onerous terms or conditions as requisite for providing goods or services by reason of SOGI; the refusal to allow any LGBT to avail of quarters or accomodation in a house, apartment, condominium, townhouse, flat, hotel inn, dormitory or any other places within the area of jurisdiction of Barangay Greater Lagro; the ridicule, humiliation, or insult of an LGBT individual to any verbal or written words or publication; the refusal to admit and/or serve in any restaurant, bars, stores, and any business establishment offering entertainment or services to any LGBT; and doing any gesture to demean the dignity and respect of other to any individual who is LGBT.
Any violation of the ADO is punishable by a fine of P200 for the first offense, P500 for the second offense, and P1,000 or imprisonment or both up the discretion of the court for the third offense.
The ADO creates an LGBT Mediation and Conciliation Board, composed of the Punong Barangay, Committee Chairperson on Women, Family, and Human Rights, GAD focal person, BCPC focal person, and Barangay Secretary, to receive complaints concerning ordinance violations, to notify the parties concerned, and mediate or conciliate the parties differences. If the complainant needs counseling, medico-legal, legal, psychological, and after-care services, he/she will be referred to the Quezon City Protection Center for Victims of Gender-Based Violence and Abuse.
