President Rodrigo Duterte should reconsider his directive to allow casino operations in Boracay and protect the “crown jewel of Philippine tourism” instead, House Deputy Speaker Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr. said.
Boracay Island In his letter to the President on September 3, Abante said that whi
Manila 6th District representative and House Deputy Speaker Bienvendo ‘Benny’ Abante (Facebook)
This was after Manila 6th District representative and House Deputy Speaker Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr. opposed the inclusion of gender identity in the “protected attributes” of the anti-discrimination measure that they are crafting.
Abante, one of the authors of the bill, said it would be a “redundancy” as gender, sexual orientation, gender expression and sex characteristics have already been included as among those protected under the bill.
“We have already made a lot of compromises, a lot of compromises. We have gender, we have sexual orientation, we have sex characteristics. There is no need for us to put up gender identity,” lamented the congressman, who is also a pastor.