Alvarez still pushes same-sex unions

FILE- Gay marriage. David Lucas/Getty Images/AFP

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez will still push for same-sex civil unions—not marriage—despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s apparent about-face on the issue of homosexual couples’ rights

In a text message, Alvarez said that he would still file a bill “as soon as we finish the draft.”

He again stressed: “Civil union lang po ang gagawing panukalang batas. Hindi po marriage (The bill will only tackle civil unions, not marriage).”

Alvarez was sought for comment after Duterte reportedly said in his speech in Burma that nonbinary gender expression is a Western construct.

“That’s their culture. It does not apply to us,” he said.

Even as the Constitution provided for separation of Church and State, he said: “We are Catholics and there is the Civil Code, which says that you can only marry a woman for me… for a woman to marry a man.”

But, during his campaign for the presidency last year, Duterte expressed openness to the idea of same-sex unions.