PHL companies hold first-mover edge on LGBTQ+ inclusion, study finds

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

MANILA – Eighty-two percent of the Philippines’ largest listed companies disclose zero or low levels of LGBTQ+ inclusion transparency, leaving the market wide open for early movers, according to new research released by Open for Business today, Sept. 10.

The findings come from the Philippine chapter of the Investor Guide to LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Growth Markets, which assesses 320 of the largest listed companies across Brazil, India, the Philippines, and South Africa, with 80 companies per market selected by market capitalization on each market’s primary exchange.

Philippine companies recorded an average LGBTQ+ Transparency Score of 10.57 out of 100. Only 5 percent achieved high transparency, while 57 percent scored zero, 25 percent placed in the low tier, and 13 percent in the medium tier. The highest-scoring Philippine company reached 73 out of 100.

That national average trails Brazil at 31.26 and India at 18.27, and sits above South Africa at 6.42.

Across the four markets, the research found that companies in the highest transparency tier have a median market capitalization of USD 17.1 billion, or 6.6 times that of zero-transparency peers at USD 2.6 billion. High-transparency firms also deliver nearly twice the cash-flow yield per dollar of equity, with a median price-to-cash-flow ratio of 5.44 against 10.23 for zero-transparency firms, and show no statistically significant profitability penalty.

The report does not claim that LGBTQ+ transparency alone causes stronger financial performance. It identifies transparency as a measurable signal associated with institutional maturity, governance quality, human-capital infrastructure, and market leadership.

Union Bank of the Philippines, Cebu Air, Globe Telecom, and Ayala were identified as the market’s top scorers.

Ken Janssens, CEO of Open for Business, said: “The headline for the Philippines is opportunity. A small group of Philippine companies is already showing what leadership can look like, and they are doing it ahead of the law. For everyone else, the gap is the point: in a market where most companies have yet to disclose, the first movers stand to gain the most. This research shows that LGBTQ+ inclusion is not a cost that well-run companies absorb; it is a characteristic that well-run companies share.”

The Philippine data shows a distinctive pattern of companies leading on public positioning rather than on internal systems.

Public advocacy is the most commonly disclosed indicator at 18 percent of companies, followed by LGBTQ+ inclusive benefits and civil society partnerships at 14 percent each. Board-level diversity is disclosed by 8 percent, employee resource groups and consumer-facing efforts by 4 percent each, and workplace awards by 3 percent. No Philippine company among the 80 assessed reported LGBTQ+ workforce data.

Only 30 percent of large listed Philippine companies disclose explicit non-discrimination policies covering sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, compared with 90 percent in Brazil, 66 percent in South Africa, and 55 percent in India.

External survey evidence reinforces the gap between policy and practice. The Out & Equal 2026 survey found that despite 82 percent anti-discrimination policy adoption among Filipino companies, 56 percent of employees say colleagues do not understand what those policies protect, and 47 percent still hear negative comments at work.

These corporate choices are being made ahead of national law. The Philippines has no comprehensive national SOGIE anti-discrimination law, and the SOGIE Equality Bill has been before Congress for more than two decades. The most recent measure, Senate Bill 2766 filed in 2024, would establish protections across employment, housing, goods and services, and healthcare.

Protection currently rests on a patchwork of local ordinances. Of 82 provincial jurisdictions, only nine provide goods and services protections based on sexual orientation, covering 11 percent of the population; eight offer employment protections, covering 10 percent; and seven provide education safeguards, covering 9 percent. Education remains the only sector with explicit national-level protection, under a 2012 order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

In February 2026, the Supreme Court recognized that same-sex couples may be co-owners of property where actual contribution is proven, but wider legal recognition and comprehensive anti-discrimination protections remain absent.

The report profiles Cebu Pacific, the low-cost airline operated by listed Cebu Air, as the fuller arc of what accountable inclusion can look like.

The airline became one of the first Philippine carriers to hire openly transgender women flight attendants in 2019. It has since extended health and travel benefits to employees’ common-law and same-sex partners, allowed employees to use their preferred name and facilities aligned with their gender identity, and built the Rainbow Routes employee network.

Its recognition includes Best Employer Brand at the 2023 LinkedIn Talent Awards, certification in 2024 as the first airline in Southeast Asia recognized as a Great Place to Work, a bronze award for Diversity and Inclusion at the Economic Times Human Capital Awards in Singapore in July 2025, and twin wins for Diversity and Inclusion and Sustainable Transportation at the ESGBusiness Awards in Malaysia later in 2025. The carrier operated an all-LGBTQ+ crew flight in 2026 to mark Pride.

Michael A. Santos, Vice Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, PFIP, said: “As a growth market, the Philippines has a unique opportunity to define what business leadership looks like for the future.

“Companies that embrace LGBTQ+ inclusion today are not simply responding to change —they are helping shape a more competitive, innovative, and inclusive Philippines, and we hope to see more Philippine companies step forward and lead the way.”

The study is the second Open for Business report focused on the Philippines. Its 2025 report, The Economic Case for LGBTQ+ Inclusion in the Philippines, found that LGBTQ+ discrimination may be costing the Philippine economy up to PHP 147.6 billion, or USD 2.7 billion, each year, equivalent to 0.67 percent of gross domestic product.

Companies were scored on a scale of zero to 100 against eight weighted transparency indicators covering workforce policies, LGBTQ+ employee benefits, employee resource groups, workforce composition reporting, board diversity governance, civil society partnerships, public advocacy, and consumer-facing inclusion. The scores capture what companies disclose publicly, not internal culture or private commitments. Data was collected between October 2025 and March 2026.

The report is the third in the Investor Guide series, following studies of developed markets in 2024 and Switzerland in 2025, bringing the total number of companies analyzed by Open for Business over three years to 660 across nine countries. Its lead author is Miguel Fuentes Carreño, Head of Research, Impact and Evaluation at Open for Business, and the study is supported by Deutsche Bank.

Janssens launched the report at the PFIP Pride Summit in Manila on Sept. 10. A further market launch will follow in Mumbai in November 2026.