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| Philippines
| | Encyclopedia of Homosexuality http://www.sexarchive.info/IES/ |
| The Republic of the Philippines
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| comprises over seven thousand tropical
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| ***Page_980***
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| ? PHILIPPINES
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| islands off the mainland of southeast Asia,
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| settled by approximately fifty million
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| predominantly Roman Catholic peoplej a
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| Muslim minority is found in the South.
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| History. Colonized by Spain in
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| the mid-sixteenth century, the islands
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| passed into American control as a result of
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| the Spanish-American War (1898). A three-
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| year armed revolt against the new
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| American colonial power was crushed in 1901.
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| During World War II, Japan occupied the
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| islands between 1942 and 1944—45.
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| Following the war, the United States granted
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| the Philippines independence in 1946. The
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| post-independence history of the Republic
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| has featured a series of guerrilla wars and
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| considerable civil strife.
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| Homosexuality and | |
| Transvestism. The Philippines enjoys a reputation
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| as one of the contemporary societies most
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| tolerant of homosexuality. Philippine
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| criminal law is silent on the subject of
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| consenting same-sex relations and there is
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| little or no prosecution under other
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| statutes. Filipinos tend to hold benign
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| attitudes toward homosexuals and in
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| certain areas of the country transvestic
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| (cross-dressed) homosexuals even are
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| accorded special status. In Bacolod, for
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| example, a sugar-cane capital of some 300,000
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| inhabitants, cross-dressed homosexuals
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| traditionally participate as dancers in the
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| main social event of the town, the
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| Christmas Eve pageant, held in the city's
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| principal hotel. The queen of the Christmas
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| pageant is usually a cross-dressed male
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| homosexual.
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| Transvestic homosexuals are
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| well-known for their fashion shows or
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| beauty pageants which are presented in all
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| parts of the Philippines for the general
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| public and frequently sponsored by civic
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| clubs such as Rotary or Kiwanis. Such drag
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| presentations are regarded as family
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| entertainment and are popular with children as
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| well as adults. Philippine children are
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| socialized to regard homosexuals as
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| interesting and amusing people. Many Tagalog
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| movies contain homosexual comic
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| characters often portrayed as friends of the
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| leading men. The appearance of
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| homosexual characters in Philippine movies
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| inevitably elicits claps and shouts of approval
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| from the many children in the audience.
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| Terminology. While it is the cross-
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| dressed male homosexuals in the
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| Philippines who are most conspicuous,
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| masculine male homosexuals and masculine and
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| feminine lesbians are also found. Because
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| of the rather complex language usage
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| patterns in the Philippines it is somewhat
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| difficult to generalize about terminology
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| referring to homosexuals. While Tagalog
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| is the official language, English is widely
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| used in the universities and among
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| educated Filipinos as a second language.
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| Several other major regional languages are
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| commonly used. The most widely known
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| terms for male homosexuals probably are
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| bakla (Tagalog) and bayot (Cebuano). These
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| terms may be used as general terms for
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| male homosexuals and may apply to
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| masculine, non-transvestic homosexuals
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| or may refer to effeminate or cross-dressed
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| homosexuals.
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| While the Cebuano term lakin-
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| on is sometimes used to refer to lesbians,
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| the more universally understood term in
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| most parts of the Philippines is the
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| English-derived term tomboy. As the term
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| implies, some lesbians are viewed as
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| mannish and some cross-dress and hold
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| traditionally male occupations. Like male
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| homosexuals, they are well-treated.
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| Lesbians, for example, may flirt with
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| neighborhood girls, sending them small presents
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| and love notes without provoking the
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| hostility of parents and neighbors, who are
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| likely to joke and tease about such
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| "crushes." Lesbians tend to lead more
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| private lives than male homosexuals and
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| have no developed social organizations
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| such as bars, networks, coffee shops, or
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| clubs. They tend to pair off relatively early
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| sometimes with a partner, usually a
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| heterosexual female, called a "live-in." Because
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| of widespread crowding, unmarried
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| homosexuals—both male and female—usually
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| ***Page_981***
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| PHILIPPINES ?
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| are not able to set up households
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| independent of extended families unless they
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| are affluent.
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| "Callboys." Courtship patterns
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| of male homosexuals are characterized by
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| the "callboy" system, wherein
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| heterosexual males usually between 15 and 25
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| engage in sexual relations or in more
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| permanent relationships with homosexuals
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| in exchange for money and sustenance
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| paid by the homosexual. Callboys may be
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| found in all parts of the Philippines and it
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| is estimated that as many as 80 percent of
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| the young males from the working and
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| lower middle classes at some point in their
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| youths work as "callboys." In some areas
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| the callboy system has become
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| institutionalized. In Pagsanjan, for example, a
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| resort town of 3,000, practically all of the
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| heterosexual males between 15 and 25
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| work as "callboys." Male homosexuals
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| have few sexual relationships with other
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| homosexuals. Most sexual relations of
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| homosexual men are with bisexual or
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| heterosexual youths.
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| The Roots of Tolerance. Despite
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| its many social and economic problems
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| the Philippines has been able to develop a
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| society which is relatively democratic in
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| terms of sex and gender. Filipinos often say
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| "We don't need women's liberation; we
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| have had it for years." There is
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| considerable truth in this statement. The
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| Philippines has a long tradition of egalitarianism
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| with regard to the sexes. Many women
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| hold positions regarded as traditionally
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| male occupations. For example, 60
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| percent of accountants, 67 percent of
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| chemical engineers, 70 percent of dentists, and
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| 52 percent of physicians in the Philippines
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| are estimated to be women. Tolerance for
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| homosexuals may well be related to these
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| more general patterns of gender equality.
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| Philippine attitudes are part of the benign
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| system of attitudes prevailing in southeast
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| Asia and the South Pacific and may well be
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| a long-standing aspect of Philippine
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| society as suggested by the pervasive presence
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| of such attitudes in rural areas and small
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| towns as well as in the cities. That
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| homosexuals were indigenous to the Philippines
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| before the the arrival of the Europeans is
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| suggested by the observations of Father
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| Juan de Plascencia, who wrote in 1589 that
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| the native Filipinos had among their priests,
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| "bayoguin... a man whose nature inclined
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| toward that of a woman." In a list of
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| "ministers of the devil" of the pre-Spanish
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| religion practiced by the natives, the
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| Spanish friar Juan Francisco de San Antonio,
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| writing in 1738, includes the bayoguin,
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| who was "an effeminate man... inclined
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| to being a woman and to all the matters of
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| this feminine sex." These scant passages
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| suggest that effeminate homosexuals held
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| places of honor in pre-literate, pre-His-
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| panic Philippines, a fact which may be
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| related to widespread attitudes of
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| tolerance accorded contemporary Philippine
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| homosexuals.
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| Crackdowns on Prostitution. By
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| the spring of 1988, two crackdowns
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| occurred to compromise the picture of
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| idyllic tolerance, although both applied only
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| to prostitution: widespread raids on bars in
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| the tourist district of Manila (the capital),
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| and the arrest and deportation of
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| homosexual pedophiles in Pagsanjan.
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| The spring and summer of 1988
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| saw the emergence of a moral crusade
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| against prostitution, pornography, and live
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| sex shows (both heterosexual and
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| homosexual) in Manila's famous Ermita tourist
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| belt. The most highly publicized aspect of
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| this crusade was a series of raids led by
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| Manila police chief Brigadier General
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| Alfredo Lim against nearly 300 bars which
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| allegedly were operating as fronts for
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| prostitution. Some two thousand prostitutes,
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| including some male prostitutes catering
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| to homosexuals, were involved in the raids.
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| While most establishments remained open
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| during this period, one of Manila's most
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| famous homosexual establishments "the
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| Retiro 690 Club," a disco with male
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| prostitutes and sex shows, was closed. By May,
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| 1988, a power struggle developed between
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| police chief Lim and Manila Mayor Mel
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| Lopez, who opposed the raids. President
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| Corazon Aquino, who approved the raids,
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| ***Page_982***
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| ? PHILIPPINES
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| stepped in and called Lim and Lopez to
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| Malacanang Palace to mediate the
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| dispute. While homosexual establishments
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| were not singled out, they were
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| conspicuously included in the generalized attack
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| on "vice" in Manila.
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| For years the town of Pagsan jan in
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| the province of Laguna has been a favorite
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| of both tourists who visit Pagsanjan Falls
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| and foreign pedophiles who form liaisons
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| with the many boys in that town who
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| readily (and usually with the knowledge
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| and approval of their parents and
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| townspeople) make themselves available for
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| money. In late February, 1988, a surprise
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| raid on Pagsanjan was conducted by
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| constabulary agents, police, and immigration
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| officials, and 22 foreign pedophiles were
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| arrested. The raiding team left Manila early
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| in the morning, arrived in Pagsanjan at 7
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| A.M., entered the Pagsanjan Lodge and
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| eight private houses without warning or
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| warrants, finding those arrested sleeping
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| with or in other compromising positions
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| with pre-pubertal Filipino boys. Those
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| arrested (from the United States, Germany,
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| Belgium, Australia, the United Kingdom,
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| Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and
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| Canada) were fined 1,000 pesos ($50) each and
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| deported. Four of them remained to
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| contest their deportation on the grounds that
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| they had done nothing illegal in view of
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| the absence of an "age of consent" for
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| males in Philippine criminal law.
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| These events are probably related
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| directly or indirectly to the threat of AIDS,
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| coupled with a new government
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| characterized by a growing sense of xenophobia
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| fed by unfavorable international publicity
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| describing the Philippines as a sexual
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| marketplace.
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| BIBLIOGRAPHY. Donn V. Hart,
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| "Homosexuality and Transvestism in
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| the Philippines," Behavior Science
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| Notes, 3 (1968), 211-48, Frederick L.
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| Whitam and Robin M. Mathy, Male
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| Homosexuality in Four Societies: Brazil,
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| Guatemala, the Philippines, and the
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| United States; New York: Praeger, 1986.
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|
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| The '''Philippines''', officially known as the '''Republic of the Philippines''', is a sovereign island country in [[Southeast Asia]] situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of 7,107 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila while its most populous city is Quezon City; both are part of Metro Manila. The [[age of consent]] in the Philippines is 12 (18 for money, profit or other consideration under the influence of an adult). | | The '''Philippines''', officially known as the '''Republic of the Philippines''', is a sovereign island country in [[Southeast Asia]] situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of 7,107 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila while its most populous city is Quezon City; both are part of Metro Manila. The [[age of consent]] in the Philippines is 12 (18 for money, profit or other consideration under the influence of an adult). |
