An LGBTQ youth program in the Philippines had its funds abruptly discontinued this week.

The National Youth Commission (NYC) announced that it would stop providing over 1.7 million Pisos (roughly $325,000) annually to the Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO) Awards foundation, an organization started by Senator Bam Aquino.

Ronald Gian Cardema, the new officer-in-charge of NYC, said that they would be replacing the TAYO awards with the President Rodrigo Roa Duterte Youth Leadership Award, and would no longer make LGBTQ issues the sole focus of the organization.

“We are the National Youth Commission, not an LGBT commission. We are here to serve the tens of millions of Filipino youth, not only a specific sector within that big youthful population,” Cardema said, according to Rappler.

The cut in funding for LGBTQ youth received swift backlash from gay rights advocates. Ryan Silverio, Regional Coordinator of ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, a collection of LGBTQ groups in eight Southeastern countries, told Gay Star News that the cuts were “discrimination.”

“This government official (Cardema) fails to recognize that LGBT persons form part of the youth sector,” Silverio said.

He added: “A lot of LGBT youth leaders are doing great strides in schools, communities and even in civil society. LGBT advocacy in our country is fuelled by the passion and commitment to inclusivity by youth leaders. Any measure to remove or reduce his agency’s mandate and programs on LGBT is an outright form of discrimination. As a youth official, I expect him and his agency to be inclusive. Youth is not a homogeneous sector.”

A Human Rights Watch report last June found that LGBTQ youth in the Philippines face higher rates of bullying and discrimination for their sexuality. Filipino adolescents also have one of the highest reported rates of HIV in the world, making up over ten percent of Filipinos who have HIV.

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