Angara files anti-discrimination bill

Senate Bill 2475 or “Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Act” aims to avert discrimination on the basis of age, ethnic origin, religious belief, political conviction, social class sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, disability, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status, health status, language, and physical features.

By Ruth Abbey Gita

Saturday, January 3, 2015

SENATOR Juan Edgardo Angara has filed a bill seeking to prohibit discrimination in the country.

Senate Bill 2475 or “Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Act” aims to avert discrimination on the basis of age, ethnic origin, religious belief, political conviction, social class sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, disability, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status, health status, language, and physical features.

“It is the policy of the State to work actively for the elimination of all forms of discrimination that offends the equal protection clause of the Bill of Rights, and the State’s obligations under human rights instruments acceded to by the Republic of the Philippines,” said Angara.

“Towards this end, discriminatory practices, as defined herein, shall be proscribed and penalized,” he added.

International Labour Organization study in 2012 showed that unemployment rates among women in the country are consistently higher than men.

Violence against women, both in and out of the home, also remains a serious societal problem.

Annual Comparative Statistics on Violence Against Women, released by Philippine National Police Women and Children Protection Center in 2014, showed that there were 1,602 reported rape cases and 3,564 cases of physical injuries against women last year.

Moreover, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders (LGBT) are also experiencing discrimination in the country.

“Kwentong Bebot, Lived Experiences of Lesbians, Bisexual and Transgender Women in the Philippines,” a study conducted by the Rainbow Rights and published by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, states that members of the LGBT community experienced physical, verbal, emotional, and sexual abuse within their homes, in schools, and in their workplaces.

Based on the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, a pilot project of Transgender Europe, at least 20 transgender of gender-variant have been killed in the Philippines since 2008, including the recent killing of Jennifer Laude by United States Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton.

International Labor Organization studies in 2012, meanwhile, said around two million Filipino children were exposed to hazardous working environments, such as quarries and mines.

There are also at least 246,011 street children nationwide, 11,346 of which are in Metro Manila alone.

Angara said age is also one factor that contributes to discrimination, especially in finding jobs.

“Age discrimination in hiring still gets in the way of job hunters in the form of job advertisements indicating that only those within a particular age range would be qualified,” said Angara.

He also noted that several senior citizens are deprived to work despite Section 5 of the Expanded Senior Citizen’s Act, which mandates the government to provide employment opportunities to seniors who have the capacity and desire to work or be re-employed.

On the other hand, a 2013 study conducted by Christian Mina entitled “Employment of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the Philippines: The Case of Metro Manila and Rosario, Batangas” showed that less than 10 percent of more than 100,000 employable PWDs registered with the Department of Labor and Employment were wage-employed.

Majority of the employed PWDs in rural and urban areas are considered “vulnerable” workers since most have informal work arrangement and are less likely to have access to employment benefits or social protection program, Angara said.

Angara said indigenous people continue to experience abuses involving arbitrary detention, persecution, killing of community representatives, coercion, torture, demolition of houses, involuntary displacements, rape, and disruption of their rights to food and shelter.

“These are but selected instances of how discrimination persists in Philippine Society, which this measure aims to address and reduce,” he said.

Under Section 5 of the proposed measure, the acts of discrimination include inflicting stigma; denial of political, civil and cultural rights; denial of right to education; denial of right to work; denial of access to goods and services; denial of right to organize; inflicting harm on health and well-being; engaging in profiling; abuses by state and non-state actors; detention and confinement; inciting hatred; and denial of right to expression.

Any person, natural or judicial, including government agencies or any private corporation who commits discrimination through any of the acts described in Section 5 shall be liable.

Any action, however, shall not be considered as discrimination if there are set genuine occupational qualifications, inherent requirement and if it conforms to the doctrines of the relevant religion practices and is done in good faith.

The penalty of not less than one year but not more than six years imprisonment or a fine of more than P500,000, or both, will be charged against those who will violate the proposed measure.

The Commission on Human Rights may impose a fine of up to P20,000 against private persons for everyday that the act of discrimination complaint persists.

The national government shall implement social protection measures for communities affected by and vulnerable to stigma and discrimination.

Angara said all government agencies, private companies, and public and private educational institution and other firms shall establish diversity programs to ensure that discrimination are prevented. (Sunnex)

SOURCE www.sunstar.com.ph