Senator Risa Hontiveros and Joel Villanueva on Wednesday clashed over Senate Bill 1600, the proposed Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics Equality Act.
During the plenary session, Hontiveros, chair of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality, aired her frustration about the alleged delay in the sponsorship of the proposed measure.
“I have been made to understand that the majority leader has obtained 19 signatures to remand the committee report to the Committee on Women because a number of pastors still want to speak,” said Hontiveros, who is also the author of the bill.
“This was a couple of weeks ago. Today, I am still waiting for it to be remanded. I have no illusions that the bill will sail through this chamber quickly, and I am ready to defend it on the floor as a Sponsor defends any bill — with arguments and logic. What I was not ready for was for this bill to be in this kind of suspension or limbo,” she added.
At least 19 senators signed the report of the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality last December.
In his response, Villanueva stressed that the bill should be remanded from the committee level as it needs “further studies”.
He also showed a pile of letters from different evangelical groups opposed to the SOGIE bill.
“What I am saying is that — it is not only me — I received these letters. There are new matters arising after the first hearing,” he said. “I have been bullied, crucified by some groups. Some groups who are misled of the fact that there was only one hearing with this very controversial measure.”
The majority leader said this prompted him to consult other senators on the matter, and “the options that are available for us is not just to remand the committee report to the original committee.”
Villanueva also said Senator Alan Peter Cayetano told him to “wait for a bit” as he will come up with a “holistic approach in looking into this particular measure.”
“He wanted to come up with a better version that would not just target one particular sector but all sectors of the society,” he said.
The lawmaker, the son of Jesus is Lord Church founder Eddie Villanueva, clarified that he “has nothing against” the LGBTQIA+ community.
“This representation has nothing against the LGBT community. I’m so close to a lot of LGBTs,” he said.
Although Villanueva has yet to move for the motion to officially bring the deliberation on the proposed measure to the committee level, Hontiveros said she is against it.
“Lastly, I accept the remanding from the committee on women, and I would reject the motion if it is converted to a motion,” she said.
Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, who also once served as a majority leader, sided with Villanueva.
Citing Rule 10, Section 13 of the Rules of the Senate, Legarda said that “all matters affecting the rules of the Senate… falls under the ambit of the Senate majority leader.”
She asked Villanueva if the lawmaker could give the assurance that the proposed measure would not languish in the Committee on Rules, which he heads.
Villanueva, in response, said he could commit to hear the measure. However, he stressed that it was not something he would decide on alone.
“Who knows if the Committee on Rules will agree and recommend that it will be deliberated and be sponsored right away,” he said.
In the end, Legarda, who expressed his support for the bill, approved the motion of the majority leader to refer the proposed measure to the latter’s panel.
Hontiveros was the lone senator who objected to the motion.