Northern Samar joins list of cities and provinces with Right to Care for LGBTQIA+ couples

Imagine being rushed unconscious to a hospital while the person who has shared your life for years stands helplessly outside—unable to make crucial medical decisions because the law does not recognize them as your spouse.

For many LGBTQIA+ couples in the Philippines, that fear is real. But a pioneering policy that began in Quezon City is steadily spreading across the country.

Northern Samar has become the latest province to approve a Right to Care Ordinance, making it the first in Eastern Visayas to adopt the measure.

The ordinance allows individuals to formally designate a trusted person, including a same-sex partner, as their healthcare proxy—the person authorized to act for them when they become incapacitated or unable to communicate.

It started in Quezon City

Quezon City pioneered the Right to Care program in 2023, initially providing LGBTQIA+ couples a mechanism to designate their partners as healthcare proxies through a Special Power of Attorney or SPA.

The idea addressed a practical problem faced by couples whose relationships are not legally recognized as marriages in the Philippines: during a medical emergency, a longtime partner may not enjoy the same standing ordinarily associated with a legal spouse or next of kin.

Other local governments soon followed.

Cities that have adopted healthcare-proxy or Right to Care measures include San Juan, Iloilo, Mandaluyong, Dasmariñas, Parañaque, Biñan and Laoag.

The movement eventually expanded beyond individual cities.

Cavite became the first province to enact a province-wide Right to Care ordinance in 2026. Similar measures followed in Laguna and Ilocos Sur, while Cebu adopted a healthcare-proxy policy through an executive order.

Now, Northern Samar has brought the movement to Eastern Visayas.

What does Right to Care mean?

The principle is surprisingly simple: you should have a say in who speaks for you when you cannot speak for yourself.

Through the legal mechanism prescribed by the particular LGU, an adult can designate a trusted person as a healthcare proxy.

Depending on the ordinance and authority granted, that person may be empowered to communicate with doctors, receive relevant medical information and make or communicate authorized healthcare decisions when the patient is unconscious or otherwise incapable of doing so.

Some LGUs also issue a Right to Care or healthcare-proxy card that makes it easier to identify the designated proxy. But the card itself does not create unlimited medical authority; the underlying legal authorization, such as an SPA, and the specific local rules remain important.

More than an LGBTQIA+ policy

Although Right to Care emerged largely in response to problems experienced by LGBTQIA+ couples, its potential beneficiaries extend beyond the community.

Unmarried heterosexual partners, single people and others who rely on trusted companions or chosen family can also benefit where local rules allow them to designate a healthcare proxy.

For LGBTQIA+ Filipinos, however, the policy carries particular weight.

The Philippines still does not recognize same-sex marriage. That can leave a person who has spent decades with a partner without the legal status automatically associated with being someone’s husband or wife.

Right to Care does not create marriage equality, nor does it give healthcare proxies all the legal rights of spouses.

What it does is address one urgent question that can become a matter of life and death inside a hospital:

If you can no longer speak for yourself, who do you want speaking for you?

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