AFP mulls opening doors to gays, lesbians

MANILA, Philippines - Armed Forces officials on Tuesday said they might open their doors to gays and lesbians who may want to be part of the military organization, but with certain conditions. “For as long as you are not showing outward manifestation, you are not disturbing others, you are not causing scandals, then there is no problem with that,” said Army chief Lt. Gen. Victor Ibrado. AFP Civil Relations Service Brig. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan said any soldier, gay or otherwise, could be discharged from service due to involvement in scandalous acts. “Remember, we have certain officers who were removed, discharge from the service because of scandalous acts. That we cannot tolerate,” Pangilinan said. Over a year ago, Army Maj. Ferdinand Ramos was discharged from the service after he allegedly forced his male subordinates to have sex with him. A video of one of his sexual encounters was caught on video and aired by a television network. Ibrado said allowing gays and lesbians to join the military needs further studying especially in areas where their skills could be utilized. “We are now on a modern world. There could be some areas where we can utilize their skills. It will be discriminatory (if we ban them), that’s why we will have to study that,” he said. Pangilinan said it would be “risky” to have gays in actual combat. “There are certain things that we cannot compromise when it comes to that (combat),” he said without elaborating. - GMANews.TV