Transgenders

By: Michael L. Tan Philippine Daily Inquirer

8:19 pm | Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 30share709 671

I was having lunch the other day with some military officers when one of them suddenly asked, How were your student elections in UP? I braced myself, knowing what the question was going to lead to, certainly not related to the lecture I had just given, which was on public health security issues. My hunch was right and within a few minutes, the lunch became quite animated as I was bombarded with questions about all the headlines around our new university student council chair at UP Diliman. One of the officers even remembered her name, Heart Dio. Hearts legal name is Gabriel Dio but prefers to be referred to as she, a transwoman and the UP Student Councils first openly transgender chair. This election was quite radical with other gender-twisting victories: Alex Castro, an open lesbian, won the post of vice chair, while another transgender, Pat Bringas, won as councilor. The conversation with the officers focused on Heart but early on, I realized the officers were confusing gender identity and sexual orientation, that is, equating homosexuals with transgenders. Thats not surprising; even UP professors in medicine and psychology still make that common mistake. Given that March is Gender Awareness Month, I thought I should clear up the confusion, as I did, I think, with the officers. (I have to say I was quite pleased that they had such an interest in the issues, and were not in any way condescending about it.) Sexual orientation Lets deal first with sexual orientation, which in western psychology would have the following labels: heterosexual (men attracted to women, women attracted to men), homosexual (men attracted to men, women attracted to women) and bisexual (men attracted to men and women, women attracted to men and women). The term gay is also used, usually referring to men attracted to men while lesbian and gay woman refers to women attracted to women. Gay has stronger connotations of an identity and political involvementfor example, gay rights or gay activism. Its not surprising that many languages, including those in the Philippines, do not have local terms for heterosexual or homosexual because these terms were first coined only in the 19th century, in Germany, and originally had clinical or medical connotations. The Tagalog bakla is often used as a translation of homosexual, but this is not quite correct. Bakla refers more to an effeminate male, rather than a sexual orientation. Transgender is a term that was coined even more recently and refers to someone who lives between (thus, trans) being male and female. Bakla, in its earlier meaning, comes closer to transgender. A transgender is someone who believes he or she was born into the wrong biological sex. Thus, Heart Dio speaks of being a transwoman because, while born male, Heart believes she should have been female. There are also transmen, born female but convinced they should have been male. Trans people are usually identified with cross-dressing, but asserting a transgender identity also involves modifications in voice, body movements, even the body itself, to become more like the sex they believe they should have been born into. Another question I got from the military: Are transgenders the same as transsexuals? In fact, one officer followed it with a question of whether Heart Dio was, you know, his hands making a chopping motion. The term transsexual is an older term that was used to refer to people who wanted surgical intervention for sexual reassignment. I have to clarify there is no chopping off involved but reconstructive surgery. (Whew, dont ask me to describe the surgery here.) To summarize, transgenders and transsexuals are labels used around gender identity while homosexuals, heterosexuals and bisexuals refer to sexual orientation. Most homosexuals are comfortable with their

biological sex and have no desire to cross-dress or to adopt behaviors of the other sex. And many local transgenders have no intention of going through reconstructive surgery, but do want to live as women. Now, fasten your seat belts as I make that distinction with a brain twister. You can have a transman who is attracted to men, which would mean that the transgender would be, in the terminologies of western psychology, a heterosexual. Now if that transgender has sexual reassignment surgery and becomes a man, she will still be attracted to men, but now that she has become a he, will now be considered a gay man. Simple, no? Normal, abnormal As a medical anthropologist, I keep emphasizing that culture plays an important role in configuring all these identities. In the Philippines and in most Southeast Asian countries, transgenders are very visible, allowed to cross-dress in public, even in school and at work. In UP, there is even an organization called UP Babaylan, which is an LGBT group, meaning an organization for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders, with transgenders forming the majority of the membership. Both Heart Dio and Pat Bringas, another transgender who made it into the UP Student Council, are members of UP Babaylan. LGBT people have existed since time immemorial, long before those terms came about. In many societies, LGBTs were marginalized and had to live very secret and tormented lives. If there was anything abnormal about them, it was the way their lives and social relationships had to be kept underground. Today, with many LGBTs organizing for civil rights, there is more tolerance for sexual diversity, and has allowed them to come out of the shadows to live normal and healthier lives. Heart is a BS Mathematics graduate, magna cum laude, and now working on a degree in applied mathematics. Ive lost count of the transgenders who graduate with honors, accompanied by proud parents to the stage during recognition ceremonies. I did ask my military friends what the Armed Forces policy is on homosexuals and transgenders. They smiled and one finally answered that there is in fact no official written policy. They said they were aware of homosexuals in their ranks, even among officers, and had no problems with their gay comrades. One even mentioned that gay men excelled when it came to combat and then added, mischievously, that they were also always very neat with their uniforms. Transgenders? The officers said they didnt have problems hiring transgenders as civilian staff but that serving in the military was another matter, and the time wasnt right yet. I thought of the Philippine Military Academy, which didnt accept women until the 1990s. Today, the women do as well as, if not better than, the male cadets.

RCBC Makati, Photo: Mike Gonzalez

Union Bank Ortigas, Photo: Mike Gonzalez

PBCom, Photo: Mike Gonzalez

BPI Makati, Photo: Mike Gonzalez Mike Gonzalez is a Wikipedia administrator (wikipedia.org/wiki/User:TheCoffee)

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Top Ten Largest Commercial Banks in the Philippines

Jul 21, 2011 by Victorino Abrugar at Banking, Money & Finance

Banks are where we entrust our money or cash for security or for earning interest income. A bank is also where we go when we want to obtain loans for our various financing needs, such as for our business startup or expansion. Thus, it is very important that we choose the best banks which we can gain solid trust and confidence. There are many factors and indicators that we can check to determine the banking

partner that is best for us, such as its financial capacity, reputation and integrity, recognition and awards, corporate governance and other things that makes a bank a great financing institution to do business with. When it comes to knowing the financial stability of banks in the Philippines, we look into their assets and equity. We also analyze the volume of their deposits and loans. Banks pay interest on their clients deposits while they earn interest on the loans they lend to their debtors. To have an idea on the largest banks in the Philippines in terms of financial capacity, the following is a list of top ten biggest commercial banks in the country in terms of assets, equity, loans and deposits as of March 31, 2011. Top 10 Largest Banks Based on Assets (as of March 31, 2011) 1. Banco De Oro (BDO) Php 965.1 billion 2. Metrobank Php 955.8 billion 3. Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Php 751.8 billion 4. Landbank Php 605.2 billion 5. Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Php 311.2 billion 6. Philippine National Bank (PNB) Php 306.2 billion 7. Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) Php 297.4 billion 8. Unionbank of the Philippines (UBP) Php 244.9 billion 9. Chinabank Php 235.2 billion 10. Citibank Php 202.6 billion Top 10 Largest Banks Based on Capital (as of March 31, 2011) 1. Metrobank Php 98.9 billion 2. Banco De Oro (BDO) Php 86.6 billion 3. Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Php 78.1 billion 4. Landbank Php 58.3 billion 5. Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) Php 37.2 billion 6. Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Php 36.0 billion 7. Chinabank Php 31.5 billion 8. Unionbank of the Philippines (UBP) Php 31.2 billion 9. Philippine National Bank (PNB) Php 29.5 billion 10. Security Bank Php 25.5 billion Top 10 Largest Banks Based on Deposits (as of March 31, 2011) 1. Banco De Oro (BDO) Php 745.5 billion 2. Metrobank Php 714.7 billion 3. Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Php 604.8 billion 4. Landbank Php 480.9 billion 5. Philippine National Bank (PNB) Php 232.3 billion 6. Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Php 214.9 billion 7. Unionbank of the Philippines (UBP) Php 195.4 billion 8. Chinabank Php 195.1 billion 9. United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) Php 148.5 billion 10. Allied Bank Php 146.2 billion

Top 10 Largest Banks Based on Loans * (as of March 31, 2011) 1. Banco De Oro (BDO) Php 541.5 billion 2. Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Php 367.9 billion 3. Metrobank Php 363.9 billion 4. Landbank Php 219.9 billion 5. Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Php 141.8 billion 6. Citibank Php 116.1 billion 7. Philippine National Bank (PNB) Php 102.9 billion 8. Chinabank Php 101.3 billion 9. Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) Php 100.0 billion 10. Allied Bank Php 91.0 billion *Excludes Interbank Loans Receivables and Net of General Loan Loss Provision