By MARJUICE DESTINADO and RUTH NACIONAL
Bulatlat.com

While Pride Month celebrations have been held in city centers, LGBTQIA+ communities in peripheral barangays like Cogon in Naga City, Cebu, remain distant from the healthcare support they aspire for.

John Librea, a 21-year-old gay English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher who has been out to his family and community since childhood, said that while he hasn’t sought medical services beyond his local barangay health center, the absence of LGBTQIA+-specific programs in rural areas is a cause of concern.

“Although I haven’t personally gone to healthcare facilities,” Librea told Bulatlat, “I can still tell that most healthcare services — especially those meant for the LGBTQIA+ community — are only accessible in the city.”

He added that efforts to bring these services to rural areas are rare and, even when available, many remain hesitant to seek care. “Most people are still hesitant to get checked because of the unpacified stigma, and also the financial burden it might cause them,” he said.

Librea’s account reflects the broader reality in many rural communities across the Philippines where LGBTQIA+ individuals face compounded barriers to access. But there are now efforts in some local government units to address the needs of the community and began introducing targeted programs, a move that, while uneven, signals an emerging recognition of the gaps in support the community needs.

Here are some initiatives, services, and community efforts of the local government for the LGBTQIA+ community:

Quezon City’s timeless initiatives for the LGBTQIA+ Community

Quezon City is one of the cities recognized for its efforts in promoting inclusivity and diversity for the LGBTQ+- sector. The city’s proactivity in protecting the rights of the community through policy can be traced back to 2003, where it was said to be the first LGU that passed an anti-discrimination ordinance penalizing discrimination in the workplace.

Today, LGBTQ+-friendly initiatives by the QC government have branched out to the healthcare sector and unions:

• Annual Commitment Ceremony for the LGBTQIA+ Couples

Every February, same-sex couples are given the opportunity to exchange vows in a commitment ceremony officiated by city mayor Ma. Josefina “Joy” Belmonte. A couple is qualified to participate as long as they are Quezon City residents and at least 18 years of age, joined by 1 witness, and have filled out an application form.

With its 5th run this 2025, the LGU recorded 915 participating queer couples in the ceremony since 2020. In 2024, non-QC resident partners were considered according to the QC Pride Council. 

• Klinika Eastwood

In 2024, the LGU passed Ordinance No. 3286, establishing Klinika Eastwood, a comprehensive sexual health care clinic under the Quezon City Health Department and in partnership with Megaworld Management, the Philippine National Aids Council, and the Department of Health (DOH).

As a primary care clinic catering to the diverse healthcare needs of LGBTQIA+ community members, and a diagnostic, treatment, and referral facility for patients with sexually transmitted disease, its services include comprehensive HIV and STI testing, counseling, and treatment services. 

Klinika Eastwood is also involved in the QC government’s ‘QC Drive, Park, and Test’, an initiative addressing the skyrocketing cases of HIV cases today. This program allows individuals to get tested for free while parked at the clinic parking.

The clinic is located at 3rd Floor, Citywalk 2 Parking, Eastwood Citywalk, Eastwood City Cyberpark, Quezon City.

Klinika Eastwood is the latest QC health center that cater to LGBTQ+- health concerns. It’s Klinika Bernardo was the first that earned numerous awards for its HIV/AIDS health interventions.

• ‘Right to Care’ Card

The pioneering initiative that garnered further recognition of queer-friendly efforts in the metro– and a commendation from the Commission on Human Rights–is the launch of the Right to Care Card, authorizing same-sex couples to agree, refuse, or withdraw consent for any type of medical care for their partners.

According to the QC LGU, it ‘operates through a Special Power of Attorney (SPA) and recognizes the decision of the cardholders to agree, refuse, or withdraw consent for any type of medical care for their partners, including treatment, procedures, tests, and prescriptions.’

For one to be eligible to apply for a Right to Care Card, couples must have at least one residing in Quezon City. Applicants will be asked to join an orientation and sign a special power of attorney (SPA) in the presence of the legal counsel, which then will be notarized by the Gender and Development Council Office. It may take up to 4 weeks until the card can be collected.

It was first released in 2024 during the 4th commitment ceremony, received by queer partners who registered. Today, the Right to Care card is honored in 470 hospitals and healthcare providers, supported by a Quezon City ordinance ordering all hospitals to implement the program.

One of the biggest and most prominent Pride events expected in the metro is Pride PH’s annual Love Laban Festival in Quezon City. The QC LGU has noted a turnout of 338,000 QC and non-QC LGBTQIA+ members and allies in the festival from 2023 to 2024, describing it as the ‘biggest pride event in Southeast Asia.’ This year is themed LOV3LABAN sa Diliman which will be held on June 28 at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. 

San Juan City’s healthcare proxy ordinance for LGBTQIA+ partners

Following Quezon City’s footsteps, effective June 10, 2025, San Juan City’s newly passed Ordinance No. 76, Series of 2024 or the ‘Right to Care’ ordinance, allowing LGBTQ+ individuals to legally designate their partners as healthcare decision-makers. This means same-sex partners can now act as medical proxies in emergencies, hospitalizations, or end-of-life situations. Couples may obtain a Health Care Proxy Certificate through the city’s Gender and Development Office, which hospitals and medical facilities are required to honor. 

Pasig City’s Comprehensive LGBTQIA++ Anti-Discrimination Ordinance

Termed Pasig CADO, Pasig City’s Comprehensive LGBTQIA++ Anti-Discrimination Ordinance of 2022 protects the rights of individuals from the following:

• Discrimination against cross-dressing
  Discrimination in public places, workplace, education, accommodation, and service
• Harassment, unjust detention, and involuntary confinement
• Promotion of discrimination

Violators will be subjected to imprisonment for at least 60 days but not more than 1 year, and/or a fine ranging from P1,000 ($17.71) to P5,000 ($88.53), and required attendance to a SOGIE awareness seminar. 

Pasig has also been recognized in their inclusive Supplemental Social Amelioration Program in 2020, which allowed LGBTQ legal partners with children as beneficiaries of PHP8,000 cash subsidy as a form of assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For June Pride, the Pasig City LGU, through the Pasig Pride Council and the Gender and Development (GAD) office, has kicked off two of the events in their series of Pride initiatives. A Pride summit gathering Pasigueño LGBTQIA+ and allies took place on June 7, and an economic empowerment forum for non-binary individuals on June 13. But the center stage will belong to ‘Pride FairEver’ slated on June 29 at Rizal High School Open Grounds, Dr. Sixto Antonio Ave., Pasig City.

Kadangpan Project in Cebu 

Cebu City LGU’s notable involvement in efforts advancing LGBTQIA+ visibility and inclusion is seen in its collaboration with civil society and community-based organizations such as in the Kadangpan Project of the Cebu United Rainbow LGBT Sector (CURLS).

The Kadangpan Project also refers to the central theme of “Empowering Key Populations: Operationalizing Anti-Stigma and Non Discrimination Council for Policy Execution and Enforcement in Mandaue and Lapulapu, Cebu.”

Among the various initiatives under the project is the drafting of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) Anti-Discrimination Ordinance of Mandaue City in Cebu, which was officially signed in 2024. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported that the IRR of the city’s ordinance was supported by the SCALE Initiative of the UNDP in the Philippines through the Kadangpan Project.

In Mandaue and other areas in Cebu, the Cebu Pride Festival 2025 features city-wide activities including pride marches, grassroots gatherings, car-free celebrations, and a culminating Big Pride Picnic at Sugbo Mercado. 

Fighting for the right of the community

While these local government units have these efforts, the LGBTQIA+ community still continues to fight for their rights in society. For one, Bahaghari, the national alliance of the LGBTQIA+ advocates, organizations and formations in the Philippines presented their seven point agenda bearing the demands of the community which they released during the elections. But Reyna Valmores Salinas, Bahaghari chairperson, said they presented their demands not only for election but beyond. 

The seven point 2025 LGBTQIA+ agenda include: 

• Comprehensive and inclusive legal protection and recognition, which includes the immediate passage of a national anti-discrimination law, marriage equality or same sex marriage, and gender recognition policies.

• Inclusive Schools Now, which includes the integration of SOGIESC education and awareness, ending repressive uniform and grooming policies, and opposing militarization in schools and higher education institutions.

• Comprehensive and free healthcare, which entails improving domestic funding for healthcare, free medical services through state-funded healthcare, transgender healthcare, and mental healthcare.

• Wage increase for all, which includes the institution of a national minimum wage anchored on the family living wage, pegged at PhP1,200 in current calculations.

• Jobs creation and social protections, which involves abolishing contractualization and promoting and protecting the right to unionize.

• Genuine land reform and national industrialization.

• Independent foreign policy as a tool of protection of national sovereignty and self-determination.

According to Salinas, the agenda which was created by the LGBTQIA+ Filipinos was the first comprehensive list of policy demands by the community “in the realm of civil and democratic rights, the economy, education, health, politics and sovereignty.”

Salinas said that their fight does not end with the creation of the agenda. “We will bring our demands to every space where we can speak out, whether it be in the streets, the House of Representatives, or the Senate.” (With reports from Anne Marxze Umil) (RBV)