Bishop nixes aid discrimination vs LGBTs

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines  — Soon-to-be-installed Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Florencio expressed displeasure over the reported discrimination of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) group in the distribution of housing and livelihood assistance to Yolanda survivors.

Relief and other assistance for Yolanda survivors is, in the first place, for everyone, Florencio said. “Regardless of gender, the assistance, like respect, should be given where it is due.”

The bishop’s reaction came after last week’s report that a Yolanda survivor in Tacloban City, who openly admitted to be gay, denounced how LGBTs were denied of livelihood assistance by the government for the mere reason that they were neither “pure man” nor “pure woman.”

Arthur Golong, president of the homeowners association of a permanent housing project of Habitat for Humanity in Barangay 106 of Tacloban, shared to the city resettlement forum his sad experience of being denied to receive a livelihood aid, intended for Yolanda survivors.

Golong said he worried that other LGBTs could be suffering from the same treatment in relief distribution and giving of housing and livelihood help from the government.

Florencio, who used to be interim head of the relief and rehabilitation unit of the Archdiocese of Palo (now called Caritas Palo), said such kind of discrimination was never done by the church in the distribution of relief goods and assistance to the victims of  Yolanda.

“If the donor is very particular on the gender of the recipient, this could be a restriction on the capacity to make productive and effective the use of the extended livelihood assistance,” said the bishop. “Generally, for me, gender is immaterial in the giving of aid, for as long as it could help the survivors,” he added.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development-8, for its part, denied discriminating the LGBT sector from the distribution of relief assistance.

“The emergency shelter assistance is given to households, which presupposes the existence of a family in each home,” it said. Solo dwellers of houses destroyed by Yolanda could also qualify provided they submitted all the requirements set in the guidelines issued by the local government unit, it added. —  (FREEMAN)