Pride Parade pushes ‘right to care’ agenda for incoming Baguio leaders
BAGUIO CITY— From a call for campus-wide gender protection rules to a petition to legalize the “right to care” of LGBTQ+ couples, this year’s Baguio Pride Parade pushed new justice and inclusive rights policies for incoming Baguio leaders who will take their oaths of office on Monday.
Hundreds of people, most of them university students, walked down Session Road here alongside local drag queens on Saturday to celebrate Pride Month while advocating social, economic and political issues that require legislation.
Chants of “Convict Sara” also rang out at the parade, alluding to outcry over delays in proceeding with the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
At a program held at Malcolm Square, local members of the Anakbayan party list announced the launch on Monday of a petition drive to make “right to care” a local law, dovetailing with Baguio’s existing antidiscrimination ordinance of 2017, the city’s human rights defenders protection law of 2024 that penalizes Red-tagging, as well as Baguio’s rebranding as an “inclusive human rights city” in 2023.
Legal standing
The right to care principle allows any couple regardless of their gender designations to make serious medical decisions for their partner in cases when they suffer a debilitating ailment or condition.
Anakbayan members said gay, lesbian or queer couples currently do not have the legal standing of mainstream married couples to make these critical decisions, which a local “right to care” ordinance could grant. Quezon City is one of the first local governments to provide this LGBTQ+ right.
At the program, Maria Cleo Cuya, Cordillera coordinator of the Kabataan party list, asked Baguio campuses to enforce gender protection rules that shield not only women, but also LGBTQ+ students, against school-based harassment.
Alleged abuses
Many of the parade participants belong to LGBTQ+ organizations in the University of the Philippines Baguio, Saint Louis University and the University of the Cordillera.
The Pride Parade also carried placards condemning alleged government abuses due to its antiterrorism programs.
Last week, the outgoing Baguio City Council urged the Department of Justice to review all terrorism cases and decisions made by the Anti-Terrorism Council, including convictions or pending charges affecting Baguio residents, which were recently flagged by United Nations Special Rapporteur Irene Khan.
As part of her Philippine visit last year, Khan had met with four Red-tagged local activists who had challenged before the Baguio Regional Trial Court (RTC) their designation as terrorists.
In her report, Khan encouraged the government “to act firmly to root out vilification and attacks on civil society instigated or carried out by the security forces, which are sowing distrust between the State and a significant part of civil society, and … should establish a policy in which it denounces the vilification and harassment of civil society actors and states clearly that it does not carry out, encourage, approve or condone such practices.”
The resolution authored by Councilor Jose Molintas, an Ibaloy human rights lawyer who will continue as member of the incoming council, asked Congress to repeal the “unconstitutional provisions” of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (Republic Act No. 11479) that unduly restrict freedom of expression and allow for the designation of individuals as terrorists without due process of law.
The resolution did not make any direct references to the ongoing case in Baguio against Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and the Anti-Terrorism Council which he chairs, and of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona, who heads the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
They were sued by local activists in 2023—Cordillera Peoples Alliance chair Windel Bolinget and members Jennifer Awingan-Taggaoa, Sarah Abellon-Alikes and Stephen Tauli—after these government agencies classified them as terrorists allegedly without providing them any explanations or justifications. The case is pending before RTC Judge Hilario Belmes.
