Vice President candidate and Congresswoman Leni Robredo has joined the marriage equality discussion by saying that the government should be open to reconsider civil unions, though “hindi yung marriage sa simbahan (not the marriage in churches).”
Interviewed by DZMM, Robredo said that while she lives according to the dictates of her religion (Roman Catholic), she supports non-discrimination of members of the LGBT community.
“Dapat ‘yung government open na tingnan yung civil unions. Hindi yung marriage sa simbahan kasi para sa akin primordial pa rin yung religious beliefs. Hindi natin puwedeng pakialaman yun. Pero yung civil unions sa gobyerno, dapat maging open yung government doon (The government should start looking at civil unions. Not marriage in churches because for me religious beliefs are primordial. We should not amend that. But with civil unions, the government should be open to this),” Robredo said.
Even with her “separate but equal” stance, Robredo is still more progressing than administration standard-bearer (and her running mate) Mar Roxas who said he is not in favor of same-sex marriage as public policy even his wife supposedly led the establishment of United LGBT of the Philippines and helmed the largely criticized “gay congress” that many saw as using of the LGBT community for political gains.
This wasn’t the first time Robredo tackled marriage equality.
In an interview with Esquire Philippines in 2015, she said same-sex marriage should be legalized in the Philippines despite pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. “As a Catholic, I don’t think I’d go for it, pero (but) I think government should legalize it. Kasi (Because) it’s the obligation of government to make sure that rights should be universal regardless of religion, sex, and gender,” Robredo was quoted as saying.
Also in 2015, while speaking at the University of Cebu, Robredo was quoted as saying that denying same-sex unions would go against human rights. This went viral online.
More recently, Robredo was quoted as saying that “who are we going to love and who are we going to live with is a basic human right.”
Robredo, the Representative for Camarines Sur, is one of the lawmakers who authored House Bill no. 3432 (Anti-Discrimination Bill).
