Recognition of same-sex unions in the Philippines

[2] On June 24, 2023, the government of Quezon City launched a "Right to Care" card, allowing same-sex couples, through a special power of attorney, to make health-related decisions for each other.

Under Lagman's proposal cohabitating same sex couples are able to register their partnership at a local Civil Registrar and document their co-owned or exclusive properties.

[6][7][8][9] In October 2016, Speaker of the House of Representatives Pantaleon Alvarez announced that he would file a bill to legalize civil unions for both opposite-sex and same-sex couples.

[19][20] The bill was characterized by Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Episcopal Commission on Public Affairs executive secretary Fr.

Jerome Secillano as an "infirmity" which could be a violation of "religious right" insisting that the state can't force the church of matters against its doctrine.

[22] The Family Code of the Philippines enacted into law in 1987 by President Corazon Aquino defines marriage as "a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman"[23] Republic Act No.

897 and 898 to append "biological" before "man" and "woman" in the Family Code so that only a pair of two people of opposite sexes (or assigned gender at birth) could legally get married.

A former senior pastor of the Metropolitan Bible Baptist Church, Abante believed that such unions are "highly immoral, scandalous and detestable".

If the bill became law the penalties would have been imposed:[28] The proposed legislation also mandates the Local Civil Registrar and the solemnizing officer to ascertain the gender of applicants before issuing a marriage license or prior to the ceremony.