SENATE OFFICE, Manila, May 12, 2011-Senator Loren Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities bats to sponsor the Anti-Discrimination Act of 2011 which seeks to promote a just and humane society that values the dignity of individuals and guarantees full respect for human rights regardless of race, religion and ethnicity.
“I am hoping that this measure will lesser cases of discrimination in the Philippine society regardless of their racial, ethnic or religious affiliation which will be treated equally,” she said, adding that this will penalize acts of discrimination in the employment, education, delivery of goods and services, accommodation, media, and in search and investigatory activities.
Legarda explained that a person who is proven guilty shall serve between nine months and twelve years in prison, and/or will be obliged to pay between Php100,000 to Php500,000 where agencies, corporations, companies and educational institutions in the private or public are mandated to create an Equal Opportunity Committee, which shall have administrative jurisdiction over cases involving discrimination and racial profiling.
“The Commission on Human Rights in coordination with other concerned
agencies will provide for the procedures for the resolution, settlement, or prosecution of acts of discrimination and racial profiling as well as the creation of Equal Opportunity Committees,” she furthered.
Legarda stressed that our Constitution provides that the State has the mandate to protect any person in all encompassing term that applies equally to all human beings, regardless of their racial, ethnic or religious affiliation, saying that the country entered into various international commitments to end racial discrimination including the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination. “Despite this, we remain a nation that throws all forms of bias and prejudice at those who we perceive to be ‘different’ from the majority,” she said.
The Senator revealed that there is a need for effective and comprehensive legal framework in fighting against discrimination and racial profiling. “As a Filipino citizen, we must build a nation where each individual’s beliefs and principles are respected and everyone is given equal opportunity to achieve his full potential as a human being,” she said. (Jason de Asis)
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