CAAP to put up gender-neutral restrooms in 41 airports

By VICTORIA CAMILLE TULAD and KEITH RICHARD MARIANO, GMA News

Published July 7, 2015 1:47pm

(UPDATED 11:15 p.m.) Communal toilets, or restrooms catering to anyone regardless of gender, will soon rise in Philippine commercial airports, the country's aviation authority said Monday.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) will construct such restrooms in 41 commercial airports starting this month, as part of the aviation authority's gender awareness development program.

The restrooms, which were designed for single use, will each have a urinal and a toilet, said Juneth Noble, head of planning and monitoring committee under the CAAP gender awareness program.

CAAP will build the first gender-neutral restrooms in its central office and in passenger terminal buildings in Busuanga, Butuan, Calbayog, Cauyan, Dipolog, Legaspi, Masbate, Naga, Pagadian, Puerto Princesa and Tuguegarao.

The first phase of the P1.8 million project is slated for completion this year.

The program would encourage gender awareness and sensitivity as required under Republic Act 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women and Executive Order 273 or the Philippine Plan for Gender Responsive Development, the aviation authority said.

"It is stated in the law that at least 5% of an agency’s budget should be allocated to this kind of projects,” said Eric Apolonio, spokesperson of CAAP.

For CAAP this five percent meant P400 million of their budget. CAAP will also rehabilitate existing restrooms as part of the program.

Juneth Noble, head of the planning and development division of GAD-CAAP, said they thought of creating gender-neutral comfort rooms because this was the request of some members of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community.

“There are those who would feel discriminated using the usual toilets for the male and the female,” said Noble. “We’ve concentrated on the male-female but the gender has actually deviated or branched out [already].”

"I think putting up gender-neutral restrooms is a positive move from CAAP. This may well serve as a precedent for private establishments and the business community to replicate," said Kapederasyon LGBT Organization national chairperson Murphy Red.

Such facilities, however, supposedly fall short of addressing homophobia and gender-based discrimination.

"Putting an end to gender-based discrimination should not be relegated to a simple elimination of borders that divide the sexes or just by literally breaking the walls that segregate one gender from another," Red said.

Kapederasyon is pushing for laws outlawing gender-based transgressions and hate crimes.

"To attain total acceptance of LGBTs, homophobia, biphobia and similar biases must be outlawed in the same manner that slavery and apartheid were abolished," Red said.

The Philippine Commission on Women (PWC) welcomed CAAP’s project. PWC monitors various government agencies’ efforts towards promoting GAD.

Unfortunately, some agencies failed to submit their proposals, according to PWC’s executive director Emmeline Verzosa. In 2014, only 216 of the 341 national agencies were able to give their project proposals.

“Others don’t understand the meaning of gender,” said Verzosa. “So there needs to be training. They should be sensitized on the meaning of gender issues.”

Nevertheless, Verzosa said Filipinos’ level of gender awareness had improved. Evidence of this was the employment of women in jobs that were originally for men, and providing women with disaster training. — NB/ELR, GMA News

Tags: airports, civilaviationauthorityofthephilippines