Casiño welcomes anti-discrimination ordinance

Party list Rep. Teddy Casiño (Bayan Muna) welcomed the passage of the anti-discrimination ordinance in Davao City saying that it is a positive development in lieu of the passage of his authored Anti-Discrimination Bill.
The Davao City Council passed the ordinance last week, penalizing discriminatory acts directed against individuals by reason of sexual orientation, religion, disabilities, color, and ethnicity.
The passage of the ordinance was described as “another landmark legislation” for the Sangguniang Panglungsod. It comes at the heels of a snowballing movement localizing the ADO Bill.
 Last October, the Cebu City Council also passed a landmark ordinance that penalizes any form of discrimination against persons with disability (PWDs), different sexual preferences, ethnicity and religion.
Rep. Casiño is the author of House Bill 1483, also known as the LGBT Rights bill, which is already at the Bicameral Committee and has been incorporated with other discrimination issues involving race, ethnicity, religion and others.
The Davao City version of the ADO provides for a penalty of P1,000 for first-time offenders, P2,000 fine and 10 days imprisonment for second-time offenders and P5,000 fine and 15 days imprisonment “or upon the discretion of the court” for frequent violators.
“I hope that other cities can legislate similar ordinances but it would be better if we have a law against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) as contained in House Bill 1483,” Casino added.
“LGBTs do not want nor claim additional “special” or “additional rights.” All they want are the same rights as those of heterosexual persons that are denied – either by current laws or practices – basic civil, political, social and economic rights,” Casiño said.
Like the consolidated bill in Congress, the Davao and Cebu City ordinance prohibits excluding, refusing or dismissing any person from public programs and services and educational institutions on the basis of disability, age, health status, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity and religion.
It prohibits discriminating against any organization or group and makes it unlawful to deny medical and other health services, transportation and other facilities based on the said biases.