2 weeks ago, I attended a Coffee Session of Mulat Pinoy because I’ve been out of the lgbt circuit for quite some time and I’m eager to thirst my intellect with stuff outside my work. Thanks to Bubbles for sharing this in her Facebook. Anyway, the topic was about Population and Gender with speakers coming from different sectors (DSWD, UP Population Institution, LGBT groups and advocates and representatives from Feminist Groups as well). The LGBT representation is really evident, and the discussion revolved around the LGBT situation here in the Philippines.

Ms. Rina Jimenez-David pointed out that in our way of thinking that is being imposed on children is very heterocentric. I very much agree to this, the conservatism of the Department of Education seem to wary away the existence of LGBTs in Philippine society. Why is there fear? Why is there a perception of LGBTs being imposed on the child very negative? To prevent children in doing bad things, some adults would say “sige ka, ibibigay kita sa bakla”. This statement alone already has a pre-conceived notion that gays or LGBTs are monsters. Children who are socialized in this kind of homophobic statements, whether it was intentional or unintentional, can lead to hatred against LGBTs. Angie Umbac of Rainbow Rights and Ang Ladlad suggested that children today should have good role models. I assume that this “good role model” is not in the absolutely related to religion but role models who simply respect other people’s differences.

Dra. Zablan from the Population Institute stated with conviction that we should have a paradigm shift. I guess this is the ideal thing to do but in reality, it can’t happen overnight. Education is the key to gear up this shift that we need; the shift from heterocentric to gender-sensitive paradigms as well as prioritizing human rights. Theories and Ideals should’t only be kept inside our brains but also in practice. By continuing to question on the existing heterocentric paradigms, we will be able to achieve a gender sensitive way of thinking wherein no one will ever care on one’s sexuality but the his/her capacity. Suntok sa buwan ito, ika nga. But rather than spreading hatred on the LGBTs, spreading gender equality among ourselves would be a worthy thing to do.

You are invited to the forum –

Speakers:
Dr. Sylvia Estrada Claudio: Framing the discussion on identity politics: What is it, what are the struggles of the marginalized and does postmodern politics present a better approach to identity politics

Atty. Germaine Leonin: Women, LGBTs and identity politics

Dean Marvic Leonen: Indigenous peoples and identity

Prof. Ibarra Guitierrez: Marginalization, identity and the party list law

Reactors: Atty. Louie Guia (Libertas) Karen Dumpit (CHR)

Now here’s an opportunity to know the discuss the issues and status quo of Philippine lesbian literature. Frankly, I am saddened on the status of lesbian literature here in the Philippines. Why? Because there are only a few lesbian resources that talk about lesbianism here in the Philippines. Most of the LGBT literature here are mostly centered on gays. I believe that this kind of forum should be attended by writers and even researchers to know where the weaknesses and strengths are. Too bad I can’t attend because I have to be in Australia on the scheduled date of the forum.

By the way, the Ishmael Bernal Gallery is at the back of UP Cine Adarna (Film Center). Everybody is welcome to attend whether lesbian or not.

Atty. Guia gave a brief background on the political set up in the Philippines and the history of the party list representation in Congress. The party list system in the Philippines was made possible through the Republic Act 7941 or the Party List System Act.

According to the law, these are the groups or organizations that can be qualified as a party list:

* National political party (Should prove that group is visible in 8-9 regions of the Philippines; can also be regional political party, presence should be in majority of the cities)
* Sectoral political party (labor, peasant, fisherfolk, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, elderly, handicapped, women, youth, veterans, ofw, professionals)
* Sectoral Organizations (groups which has similar physical attributes, interests, employments or concerns)

Currently, we are adapting the proportional representation kind of legislature. This means that the number of party list representatives will be proportioned on the number of district representatives elected. By law, 20% of the 260 seats in Philippine Congress are reserved for party list representatives however the pre-requisite of such is that the party list should get more than 2% votes of the total voting population. If it’s lower than 2%, this loses the chance of a party list to be included in Congress. Each party list is entitled to a maximum of 3 seats.

To illustrate, here is the formula:

(.80 ) (.20)
————- = no. of seats for party list representatives
.80

How will the winners be determined?
The party list will be ranked from highest to lowest. The order of names placed in the Certificate of Candidacy will determine who will have the first slot. Those party lists who garnered kmore than 2% of the votes of the total voting population will have the opportunity to have additional slots in proportion to their total number of votes.

BUT, it seems that this is IDEAL since there are some party lists who were able to get seats in Congress but were below 2% of the total voting population; this is just to FILL UP the vacant seats. It was decided by the Supreme Court then. As mentioned by Atty. Guia, having a party list doesn’t mean that the seats are already reserved for the marginalized groups but only an OPPORTUNITY. They would still have to undergo the democratic electoral system and play the game with traditional politics.

The Republic Act 9525 was signed into law by President Gloria Arroyo last March 22,2009 and this means that a budget of 11.3 Billion was already release. This allows COMELEC (Commission of Elections) to automate the upcoming 2010 elections. Atty. Guia gave us a bit of background on how the automated polls will work. He mentioned that there will be 80,000 machines that will be used all over the country and there will be one per precinct. If we will be visualizing it, a precinct wouldn’t mean just the classroom itself. A precinct is composed of 200 voters (of a specific geographical area) so the classroom, if we will be imagining it, is composed of 3-5 precincts (a total of 600-1000 voters). Going back to the machines, there will be one machine per classroom that will be used by 600-1000 voters. There will be pre-printed ballots; the voters would have to shade the box of their chosen candidates. Filled ballots will then be inserted to the scanner after voting hours (they said that voting will be extended until 6 pm so due to the limitation of the scanner); that is the time that the votes will be canvassed. The scanner can print 30 copies of election returns and electronically transmit them to the higher canvassing boards. During canvassing, there will be one IT personnel to take care of the issues of technical difficulties.

Now what’s wrong with this one? Hmm obviously, even though there is already the technology of counting ballots, it’s not real time! There will still be room to cheat since the filled ballots will just remain in the hands of the teachers. There could still be ballot switching, etc… I also hope that they have prepared a back up plan in case the scanners get f*cked up during canvassing of votes.

The quesion of software hacking also was raised because everything right now can be hacked. Atty. Guia said that it will be very hard to hack the system easily during canvassing of votes because people who have intentions to cheat in the elections would do the “more violent” way like abduction or much less “harmful”, bribery. That’s correct but I do hope that the IT people who are involved with maintaining the software for this one would be confined in one place without external communication. The master IT person might be abducted and bribed one day then our elections are all screwed up. It’s not really paranoia but I think that’s how we can safeguard this automation of polls.

Having said all that, where is the LGBT sector in the party list race?

Well, the LGBT doesn’t have any representatives in Congress yet. It was in 1998 when Akbayan consulted the LGBT community on the LGBT Agenda so I think there is an indirect representation already in Congress. Akbayan is the only party list who is pushing for the Anti-Discrimination Bill or House Bill 956. You may download the bill by clicking this link.

In 2006, Ang Ladlad (headed by Ateneo English Professor Danton Remoto) attempted to win an LGBT seat for the 2007 elections but the group was rejected and Remoto was considered a ‘nuissance candidate’. Ang Ladlad filed the group as a National Party and COMELEC rejected them on the ground of lacks national membership. Prof. Remoto sent a letter of appeal to COMELEC as well as his organization for a motion for reconsideration. COMELEC was still cold-hearted and still denied Ang Ladlad.

It is disheartening to know that the COMELEC still doesn’t understand the urgency of LGBTs to be represented in Congress. I think these oldies (or should I say tander cats or mashonders in gay lingo) are still stuck in the traditional way of thinking.

Now how can we go about it? COMELEC’s reason of ‘lack of national membership’ means that Ang Ladlad should have provincial chapters to be considered as a national party. There are lots of LGBT organizations in the whole Philippines but not every group is connected with Ang Ladlad. It is obvious that there are lots of LGBTs in the Philippines (out or closeted) but the question is does every LGBT want to be associated with Ang Ladlad? Probably, Ang Ladlad should file the group as a sectoral organization so that the pre-requisites are much easier. For as long as there is a capability to run a national campaign, that is not a problem. It seems easy but it would take lots of humanpower to achieve this.

I believe that we as LGBTs should be represented in Congress because there is really an urgency. I appreciate (and very thankful) Akbayan for helping us out with the LGBT agenda but with the addition of another group that would primarily deal with LGBT issues in Congress would be helpful in passing bills or laws. If an LGBT party list will have a seat in Congress, there would be an additional vote for the LGBT agenda (together with Akbayan), correct?

I hope that Ang Ladlad will be able to qualify as a party list for the upcoming 2010 elections. So far, that’s the only group I know that is pushing to become one of the party lists in Congress. Well if there is another one, the better! If the PBA players were qualified to be one of the party lists candidates, why can’t LGBTs? For the LGBTs to achieve a seat in Congress, I believe that we need to be unified.

To kick off things here, I would like to say that I appreciated the fact that P.O.C (Philippine Online Chronicles) set up an event like this. This was Bebe Gandanghari’s way to reach out to the bloggers since she has been visible online. The event was ok but I really couldn’t say that it achieved something. Yes, she was liked by everyone (and suddenly became fan boys and girls) butI am saying this because I believe that the LGBT agenda wasn’t highlighted. It became some sort of a ‘fans day’ or a ‘press con’ for an upcoming movie. I am glad that some of my fellow bloggers (even though they’re not “one of us”) asked relevant questions that actually highlighted the LGBT issues such as discrimination. It was Mark and I who opened up the LGBT issues and I was even wondering if some of the people there knew what LGBT was. Maybe I was looking for something that I couldn’t find and I expected it to become an avenue for it. But, I my expectations were too much. I know that total acceptance of the LGBTs is very impossible in the Philippines (and even the world) but at least some of us bloggers were able to open it up. I actually appreciated Mark in being honest about being one of the homophobics and meeting BB in person sort of opened up his mind a little bit though I know homophobia is not totally gone. This has become a some sort of achievement for me.

Anyway, I actually invited some LGBT bloggers to attend the event because I believe that they deserve to be represented there. I’m glad that Peach of lesfriendly.com was there and waved at me but I am not really sure if the others came. There was a bit of frustration in my part because there is already an avenue for the LGBTs to shine but it seemed that these kinds of events won’t interest them. This was how I felt when I was in college when the organizations that I was a member of organize forums or discussion groups and nobody wants to attend. Deep in our heart we know that the topics that we have were very relevant but usually it’s just the members of the org who attend those kinds of intellectual avenues to at least have an audience. There should be a ‘marketing’ factor to motivate people to come. As much as I don’t want to think that people are always searching for ‘what will I get out of it?” factors to make them go but it is a reality. Why do I need to ask more when I really can’t expect people to have the passion and conviction on the politics of the LGBT agenda? Oh well, here I go again. I better stop expecting from people too much. It is true that there is division in all sectors of the society and even in the LGBT community. It just sucks but I would have to work with it. At least some people were enlighted about the LGBT issues and I am already happy about it.

Above all the externalities, I admired BB Gandanghari. I saw her inner beauty while she was answering the questions that we asked. I realized that she is a sensible person who is capable of having an intellectual conversation.

Rustom Padilla has became her past but she does not regret living as Rustom Padilla. She’s currently a transgender (or transpinay in the local terms) and according to her does not have any plans on “cutting it off”. I know that most people will think that “isn’t it that being an LGBT means that they want the sex organ of the opposite?” well, to tell you frankly not everyone would like to have a sex change. This is a misconception and a lot of LGBTs are happy with the sex organ that they currently have. Like me, I don’t want a dick. I am very happy with my own stuff.

BB is a good example also in recreating one’s self. This shows that agency (individual) plays a very powerful role in self-deconstruction. And with her internalization of her deconstructed self as a woman becomes a reality. I know people’s minds are still boggled by this kind of idea but for me it is welcoming the concept of agency (individual) creating reality and not the other way around. Well actually, this has been a long debate among the social theorists but I think that it is becoming mainstream as well. This will open the hard to penetrate narrow minded individuals in thinking that reality is based on defining what is right or wrong. Something becomes a reality if other people acknowledge it. As mentioned by BB, she has experiences with the people that she meets acknowledges (and welcomes) her being a transgender. Her concept of reality is thus becomes legitimized and the internalization of her being a woman is much more deepened. I remember, when I got home I told my mom that I have met BB and then she asked “So talagang tinotoo na niya ang pagiging bakla niya?” and I would answered “Ma, matagal na siyang ganyan at ang pagiging totoong bakla ay hindi natatapos sa pagsusuot lang ng pambabaeng damit. Kahit ang lalake ay lalaking-lalake magdamit ay kung bakla, bakla talaga. Hindi nasusukat yon sa panlabas na kaanyuan. Yun ang katotohan niya na babae siya kaya tanggapin natin.” I would’ve wanted to say “Hindi naman niya pinapakialaman ang pagiging ‘straight’ mo so bakit pa nating pakikialaman ang pagiging babae niya?” but saying that would be too disrepectful hehe. Everytime I open up a topic that is very mind boggling we would always fight about it.

BB has become one of the leading LGBT Icons in the Philippines and I thanked her for being our inspiration. We, the LGBTs, need someone to look up to so that we could be guided on how we can live our lives. I just hope that we could have more Pinay lesbian icons too.