Presidential candidate and survey frontrunner Bongbong Marcos doesn't believe that the lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community pose a polarizing issue vis-a-vis religious groups in the country.
According to the UniTeam member, the Philippines is "much cooler" in dealing with the LGBT or LGBTQ community compared to other countries.
"I don't think LGBTQ issues are polarizing in the Philippines, honestly. I think we are much more open-minded about it considering the fact that we are in fact very Roman Catholic country. I don't think it's polarizing at all. I think Filipinos are, I don't know how to put it, but we're much cooler than most other places when it comes to these things," Marcos said Saturday, March 26 during his guesting at The Deep Probe: The SMNI Presidential Interview.
Moreover, he said that Filipinos have taken the same attitude as Pope Francis on the topic of LGBT people, particularly on the matter of same-sex union.
"Let me get to the point--LGBTQ, Roman Catholic...what did the Pope say when he was asked about same-sex union? And I think the Pope said is perfectly: 'Who am I to judge?'"
"And that's the attitude all of us have and with that I think we will be able to go down the correct path," the former senator and Ilocos Norte governor said.
Marcos said that the LGBT sector in the Philippines isn't asking for special treatment anyway.
"'Do not discriminate against us. Yun lang naman yun eh (That's basically it). We don't want a special program for ourselves. Just...patas lang, pare-pareho lang (we just want to be treat equal with others)," he said.
Marcos stressed that all forms of discrimination "are something that we have to guard against. Because it's corrosive eh. It just gets in the way. It doesn't help anything."
"So that I think is the approach to LGBTQ issues--just fight discrimination every step of the way. There's a pool of talent in every sector of our society that we need to take advantage of and so we cannot exclude anyone and say, 'Hindi pwede yan, ayaw namin sa ganyan (That's not allowed, we don't want that).'"
Earlier this month, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, who is Marcos's running mate in the May 2022 polls, told the local LGBT sector during a meet and greet that she was also an LGBT member.