The verdict of the LGBTQIA community to the two years of the administration of president Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., son of a former dictator, is “a marked 0 out of 10.”
This is according to Bahaghari, a network of LGBTQIA organizations in the Philippines, which stressed that instead of providing aid to alleviate the effects of the economic distress that many Filipinos are experiencing, “Marcos Jr.’s sole focus is whitewashing his family’s corrupt and criminal history, and expressing full servility to imperialists such as the US. He does not stand for ordinary Filipinos, let alone ordinary members of the LGBTQIA community.”
For Bahaghari, none of the social sectors in the Philippines have benefited in the last two years, particularly LGBTQIA Filipinos.
“The SOGIE Equality Bill continues to languish in Congress and the Senate. Civil rights, be it marriage equality, legal gender recognition, and others continue to be a pipe dream. Meanwhile, we are told to be grateful and content to have Marcos Jr.’s ‘special committee on LGBTQIA affairs,’ which is actually simply a group of government-appointed airheads with no speciality in LGBTQIA rights, and token visibility to boot. We will be unsurprised to see that, yet again, there will be no mention or only tokenistic mention of the LGBTQIA community in his upcoming SONA (State of the Nation Address), let alone any declaration of the SOGIE Equality Bill as a priority measure.”
Bahaghari added that “at the expense of justice for Jennifer Laude and of Philippine sovereignty, Marcos Jr. has expanded US EDCA sites across the country. Recently, he has also confirmed a Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) with Japan, not unlike the existing VFA with the US which will allow visiting Japanese troops into our soil, even as justice continues to elude our comfort women victimized by Japan during WW2. Marcos has likewise refused to take clear action in terms of upholding the arbitral ruling favoring the Philippines over China in the West Philippine Sea.”
Bahaghari knows that in his third SONA this July 22, Marcos Jr. will “surely and proudly parade his so-called achievements, including his crammed Php35.00 wage increase for workers in NCR. Dubbed ‘mumo (particles of cooked rice falling off the plate or table during a meal)’, this wage ‘increase’ is a staggering insult to the workers and their families whose hunger and hardship in the last year are incomparable to the loose change of 35 pesos Marcos has thrown our way.”
All these, while Marcos Jr. flaunts his luxurious lifestyle amidst nationwide suffering. “The Filipino people will never forget how we have been plunged into various transportation crises in the last year, only to see our president hopping from party to party, flown via private plane funded by the public treasury just so he can skip traffic and attend a concert like a true VVIP.”
Bahaghari similarly noted several failures of Marcos Jr., including:
- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel’s production restrictions, so that Filipinos have been stretched further by another wave of oil price hikes. “For the 4th consecutive week, the price of petrol products are rising in the Philippines, totaling an increase of some Php4.65 for gasoline, Php3.3 for diesel, and Php3.05 for kerosene in the last month. Increases in the price of petrol products are particularly devastating, as they affect the price of food and other goods with production lines dependent on petrol.”
- While the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has reported a decline in inflation from 6.6% in April 2024 to 3.9% in May 2024, the existing inflation figure remains high, and the reality persists that the majority of Filipinos continue to endure hardship and struggle to afford their necessities.
- High price of rice, with the effects of the Rice Liberalization law now in full force, and the promised P20 per kilo during Marcos’s campaign period is nowhere in sight. “Many Filipinos find it difficult to maintain proper nutrition due to the rising costs of meat, fish, vegetables, and other essential goods.”
- Marcos Jr. has likewise intensified the Philippines’ reliance on foreign investors, “who bring foreign capital only to extract cheap raw materials and cheap labor from Filipinos, and then fill their pockets as well as that of their local comprador bureaucrats.”
- Job insecurity with – in May 2024 – the unemployment rate reaching 4.1%, affecting approximately 2.1 million people, according to the PSA. “Data manipulation notwithstanding, this statistic reflects the plight of Filipino families who are suffering from joblessness and insufficient incomes. It does not help that Marcos continues to disregard calls to junk the Wage Rationalization Act; the minimum wage in NCR is horrendous as it is, and now the minimum wages are crushed down even further in other regions.”
Bahaghari stated that it will “join our fellow Filipinos in staging the ‘SONA ng Bayan’, a protest exposing the true state of the nation marked by the rotten leadership of Marcos Jr. dragging us further into poverty, and which can only be resolved by the Filipino people coming together to highlight our demands: living wages, stable jobs, and human rights.”
