The Philippines does not legally recognize

same-sex unions A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

, either in the form of

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

civil unions A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

. The

Family Code of the Philippines The Civil Code of the Philippines is the product of the codification of private law in the Philippines. It is the general law that governs family and property relations in the Philippines. It was enacted in 1950, and remains in force to date wit ...

defines only recognizes marriages between "a man and a woman". The 1987

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

itself does not mention the legality of same-sex unions or has explicit restrictions on marriage that would bare same-sex partners to enter into such arrangement.

Proposed legislation

Property rights of same-sex partners

While same sex unions are not recognized by the Philippine government, there has been proposals to introduce laws which would recognize same-sex partners'

property rights The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership) is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typically ...

that are similar to heterosexual couples. Such attempts include the 2013 proposal by Albay representative

Edcel Lagman Edcel Castelar Lagman Sr. (, born May 1, 1942) is a Filipino human rights lawyer and politician from the province of Albay. He was elected as a member of the House in 1987 up to the present. He served as Minority Floor Leader of the House of Re ...

and 2019 proposal by Senator

Imee Marcos Maria Imelda Josefa Remedios "Imee" Romualdez Marcos (; born November 12, 1955) is a Filipina politician and former actress serving as a Senator since 2019. She is the daughter of Ferdinand Marcos and former first lady Imelda Marcos and the ol ...

. Under Lagman's proposal cohabitating same sex couples are able to register their partnership at a local Civil Registrar and document their co-owned or exclusive properties.

Same-sex union

Alavarez proposal

In October 2016, Speaker of the House of Representatives

Pantaleon Alvarez Pantaleon Diaz Alvarez (born January 10, 1958) is a Filipino politician serving as the Representative of Davao del Norte's 1st district since 2016, previously holding the position from 1998 to 2001. He served as the Speaker of the House of ...

announced that he would file a bill to legalize

civil union A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

s for both opposite-sex and same-sex couples. By October 25, 2016, more than 150 lawmakers had signified their support for the bill. Alvarez introduced House Bill 6595 on October 10, 2017. The bill was also under the wing of representatives

Geraldine Roman Geraldine Batista Roman (born April 23, 1967) is a Filipina journalist and politician serving as the Representative of Bataan's 1st district since 2016. She is the first transgender person elected to the Congress of the Philippines. She was na ...

Bataan Bataan (), officially the Province of Bataan ( fil, Lalawigan ng Bataan ), is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Its capital is the city of Balanga while Mariveles is the largest town in the province. Occupying the entir ...

Gwendolyn Garcia Gwendolyn Fiel Garcia (born October 12, 1955) is a Filipina politician serving as the governor of Cebu since 2019, a position she previously held from 2004 and 2013—being the first woman to hold that office. She was the representative of Ceb ...

Cebu Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 ...

, and

Raneo Abu Raneo "Ranie" Enriquez Abu (born October 28, 1970) is a Filipino politician serving as the Representative of Batangas's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2022. He served as the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philipp ...

Batangas Batangas, officially the Province of Batangas ( tl, Lalawigan ng Batangas ), is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region on Luzon. Its capital is the city of Batangas, and is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and La ...

. In the Senate, conservative senators

Tito Sotto Vicente Castelo Sotto III (; born August 24, 1948), professionally known as Tito Sotto, is a Filipino politician, entertainer and athlete who served as Senate President from 2018 to 2022. Before that, had two stints each as Senate Majority Lea ...

Joel Villanueva Emmanuel Joel Jose Villanueva (, born August 2, 1975), nicknamed "Tesdaman", is a Filipino politician serving as the Senate Majority Leader since 2022 and has been a Senator since 2016. He previously served as the Director General of the Techn ...

vowed to block the bill should it ever pass the House of Representatives. Following the adjournment of the 17th Congress and the subsequent 2019 general elections, the civil union bill was reintroduced by Alvarez in May 2019.

Bagong Henerasyon proposal

Bagong Henerasyon The Bagong Henerasyon Party-List, also known as BH Party List is a political organization which has party-list representation in the House of Representatives of the Philippines. The political party participated in the 2019 Philippine elections, wh ...

representative Bernadette Dy filed House Bill No. 1357 during the 18th Congress in the House of Representatives which proposed civil partnerships for same-sex couples. Dy refiled the proposed measure as House Bill 1015 in the 19th Congress.

Padilla proposal

Senator

Robin Padilla Robinhood Ferdinand Cariño Padilla (; born November 23, 1969), known professionally as Robin Padilla, is a Filipino politician, television personality, martial artist, actor and director currently serving as a Senator of the Philippines since ...

introduced Senate Bill No. 449 which proposed the institution of civil unions for both heterosexual and same sex partners, which does not require any religious rites. The measure includes recognition of property and adoption rights for same sex partners. The bill was characterized by Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Episcopal Commission on Public Affairs executive secretary Fr. Jerome Secillano as an "infirmity" which could be a violation of "religious right" insisting that the state can't force the church of matters against its doctrine.Padilla, a Muslim, also lost support from the Grand Imam of the Marawi who withdrew support for him.

Explicit non-recognition and other limitations

The

enacted into law in 1987 by President

Corazon Aquino Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; ; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipina politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People P ...

defines marriage as "a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman" Republic Act No. 386 of 1949 or the Civil Code of the Philippines, also includes mentions of marriage as being between a man and a woman. There have been several attempts to include more explicit restriction to the Family Code to bare any ''de facto''

same sex unions A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

. In 1998, Senator

Marcelo Fernan Marcelo "Celing" Briones Fernan (October 24, 1927 – July 11, 1999) was a Filipino lawyer and political figure. He is the only Filipino to have served as both Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and as Senate President. He is also the thi ...

filed Senate Bills No. 897 and 898 to append "biological" before "man" and "woman" in the Family Code so that only a pair of

cisgender Cisgender (often shortened to cis; sometimes cissexual) is a term used to describe a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth. The word ''cisgender'' is the antonym of ''transgender''. The prefix ''wiktionary:cis ...

man and woman could legally get married. In 2004,

Muntinlupa Muntinlupa, officially the City of Muntinlupa ( fil, Lungsod ng Muntinlupa), is a 1st class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Metro Manila, National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the ...

representative

Ruffy Biazon Rozzano Rufino Bunoan Biazon (born March 20, 1969), better known as Ruffy Biazon, is a Filipino politician currently serving as the Mayor of Muntinlupa since 2022. He previously served as Representative of Muntinlupa in the Philippine House of R ...

filed House Bill No. 1245 in the House of Representative while his father Senator Rodolfo Biazon filed Senate Bill 1575, the counterpart bill, in the Senate. The proposed bills by the Biazons had a similar proposal limitting marriages to :natural born males and natural born females". Senator

Miriam Defensor Santiago Miriam Palma Defensor-Santiago (''née'' Defensor; June 15, 1945 – September 29, 2016) was a Filipino scholar, academic, lawyer, judge, author, and stateswoman who served in all three branches of the Philippine government: judicial, executiv ...

's Senate Bill No. 1276 filed in 2004, meanwhile proposed the explicit non-recognition of same-sex unions solemnized abroad in the Philippines. Bohol representative Rene Relampagos filed in 2011 House Bill No. 4269 amending the Family Code which tackles recognition of marriage and other forms of unions abroad. Among the provisions include "prohibited marriages" or forms or relationship explicitly not recognized. Reasoning that the Philippines public policy is to recognize marriage as a union between a man and a woman, the proposed measure explicitly bares the recognition of same sex unions.

Criminalization

During the 14th Congress, Manila representative

Benny Abante Bienvenido "Benny" Mirando Abante Jr. (born May 15, 1951) is a Filipino politician and Bible Baptist pastor who is currently serving as the representative of Manila's 6th district since 2019, a position he previously held from 2004 to 2010. H ...

filed House Bill No. 6919 in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

proposing the criminalization of same sex unions. A former senior pastor of the Metropolitan Bible Baptist Church, Abante believed that such unions are "highly immoral, scandalous and detestable". He proposed penalties for applicants and solemnizing officers of same sex union rites. If the bill became law the penalties would have been imposed: *15 years imprisonment and a fine for the partners in an unauthorized same sex union *If offenders who are public officers or employee – dismissal from government service and banned from re-employment in any public office *12 year imprisonment and fee for anyone "faking" or "misdeclaring" their gender to secure a marriage license (i.e. declaring their gender as other than their assigned gender at birth) The proposed legislation also mandates the Local Civil Registrar and the solemnizing officer to ascertain the gender of applicants before issuing a marriage license or prior to the ceremony.

''Falcis III v. Civil Registrar-General''

On June 19, 2018, the Philippine Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a historic case seeking to legalize same-sex marriage in the Philippines. The court dismissed the case for lack of standing in September 2019. The court stated that it could only make a decision if "real adversarial presentations" were shown, noting that the plaintiff could not claim injury since he was not seeking marriage for himself or had presented an actual case. The court, however, added that the 1987 Constitution in "plain text" imposes no restrictions on same-sex marriage.

References

{{Asia topic, Recognition of same-sex unions in LGBT rights in the Philippines

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...