Rainbow high in Dinagat.
Governor Kaka Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands signed a pledge – dubbed Pantay Pledge – specifying the provincial government’s intent to strengthen its pro-LGBTQIA initiatives. Backed by local LGBTQIA organization, the Provincial Federated LGBTQ+ Association (PROFLA), Bag-ao stressed that this is to ensure the equal treatment of all people in the province.
Among others, the pledge specifically:
- Recognizes the concrete interventions done through the Provincial School Board to teach educators and parents about Dinagat Islands Anti-Discrimination Ordinance, and Republic Act No. 10627 (Anti-Bullying Act);
- Seeks to identify possible concrete interventions of law enforcers via Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) to ensure gender sensitivity and respect of people of diverse SOGIESC;
- Pushes to strictly implement Sec. 5.3 of Dinagat Islands Anti-Discrimination Ordinance to ensure gender-inclusive lavatories or public bathrooms in the Provincial Capitol;
- Calls for the issuance of an Executive Order to allow the use of affirmed or preferred names of transgender people instead of the names given them at birth, with the same to be allowed in permitted documents like correspondences, notices and identification cards;
5.Calls for the issuance of an Executive Order mandating public offices to follow an “ASK POLICY”, whereby people will be allowed to use their affirmed or preferred names, honorifics and pronouns in correspondences, minutes of meetings, and other permitted documents; and - Calls for the issuance of an Executive Order to deal with the traditional dress code in the Provincial Capitol, thereby allowing transgender people to present themselves according to their chosen gender identity and expression.
