By Carmela Reyes-Estrope and Anton Luis Catindig
PANDI, Bulacan—“Pamilya Ko” party-list is the underprivileged member of a Filipino family’s party-list in Congress as it aims to craft laws for the protection of live-in partners and other forms of blended and modern families, women and children engaged in surrogacy, members of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenders, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) and their families, illegitimate children and children of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW).
Pamilya Ko first nominee Atty. Aeneas Eli Sarmiento Diaz, with second nominee, San Beda law student Miguel Kallos, who themselves represent the sectors in their party-list said parties in live-in partnership, the most common form of modern Filipino families do not get protection from the law.
In times of death of the other party, the survivor is not automatically given the right under the present law to inherit the properties of the partner.
The current system for domestic law partnership does not give the partner the right to inherit, Diaz said. “There is no protection there, no recognition and due accord of just and fair treatment, only because they are not legally married. However, for several years, they live in peace and inharmony as husband and wife,” Diaz told reporters in an interview shortly before their caravan in this town on Friday.
Pamilya Ko party-list also wants equal opportunity for children born out of wedlock. Diaz said based on the present law, illegitimate children only get one half of what a legitimate one gets. “Being illegitimate is not the children’s fault, why should there be a discrimination,” he said.
According to Diaz, their party-list would also propose laws that would seek to protect Filipino women and the children born out of surrogacy.
“The practice of surrogacy, of which many Filipino women are engaged in as a form of organ donation as a means of living, has been going on for years and which led to their exploitation,” there must be laws for their protection.
Diaz said, laws on surrogacy that will be proposed and wanted enacted by Pamilya Ko party-list will be an unprecedented move in the country.
Laws that will also protect the rights of the LGBTQIA+ is also one of the top priorities of the party-list.
Pamilya Ko party-list also wants more protection and government care for the OFW families and their children.
The party-list acronym-, LOVABLES, stands for Live-In, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW), Victims of domestic violence, Adoptive families, Blended families, LGBTQ union, Extended families and Solo parents.
Joined by women groups, sector members of Pamilya Ko party-list and other residents in this town, Diaz and his team toured the densely populated barangays in the town.
Pandi’s population as a sanctuary of former Metro Manila urban poor families known as Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) has reached more than 155,000 based on the 2020 census.
Today, eight years after the Kadamay’s occupation of some 6,000 empty units of houses in at least seven government housing projects in six barangays, the population is estimated to have reached more than 200,000.
Pamilya Ko party-list will stage their second caravan in Bulacan in an even thickly populated urban poor sector, City of San Jose del Monte.
