DAVAO CITY—The mother of boxing champion Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao earned the ire of a group of gays for what was taken to be an anti-gay slur that she made recently. Dionisia Pacquiao was reacting to criticisms that her son, now a congressman, shouldn’t pretend to have the intelligence to debate on reproductive health (RH), and focus instead on his core competency—boxing.
The group Progressive Organization of Gays (ProGays Philippines) took exception to the reaction of “Mommy D” to Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, who fell short of calling her son intellectually challenged in the debate over the RH bill.
“Tingnan mo mga bakla kaiinom ng pills, hindi na bagay inumin ng mga bakla kasi lalaki sila. Ginawa sila ng Diyos na lalaki. Umiinom talaga sila ng pills para magsilaki ang dede. Bawal ’yan! (Look at gay men, they take pills, which are not fit for them because they are men. God made them men. They take pills to enlarge their breasts. That’s prohibited!),” Dionisia was quoted as saying.
Dionisia was reacting to Senator Santiago’s criticism of her son for misquoting the Bible’s passage on reproduction. “Go out and multiply,” the boxer was quoted as quoting the Bible. Santiago said Pacquiao’s lack of information, or failure to fully comprehend the subject, on reproductive health was apparent in the misquotation. The correct quote, Santiago said, should be “Go forth and multiply.”
“We should not just be going out into the streets and copulating with anyone,” Santiago said in reaction to Pacquiao’s quoting the Bible, laughing as she was interviewed by reporters in Manila.
Dionisia reacted sharply to the senator, taking it as a ridicule of her son’s intellectual capacity. She said her son didn’t deserve to be ridiculed because he, like the senator, “is a lawmaker, too.”
Goya Candelario, spokesperson of ProGay Philippines, said Dionisia’s jab at gays was scary and dangerous.
“We want Mommy Dionisia to know that we are deeply offended,” said Candelario. She said Dionisia’s statement is a mirror of how some sectors of society consider homosexuality as a “disease.”
Dionisia’s statement, she said, was dangerous as it could promote “homophobia.”
The exchange between Dionisia and Senator Santiago had turned hilarious, with Dionisia screaming the word malaswa (lewd) over and over to stress her point that Santiago should be criticizing obscenity instead of her son’s position on the RH bill.
Candelario admitted many poor gays “take female hormones in contraceptive pills to enhance their femininity.”
“The practice should not be considered immoral, illegal or a state of mental disorder,” the ProGay leader said.
“Many of us have to take some form of female hormones because our livelihoods in the beauty and tourism industries depend on enhanced feminine features,” said Candelario.
“However, because of expensive hormones that only high-income trans-genders can afford, we urban and rural poor gays … can only access the cheaper birth control pills,” she said.
She said discrimination against gays should stop through the RH bill, which would give gays access to better information on pills and other health issues surrounding the gay community.