Just like 61 percent of Filipinos, some senators are cool to the idea of same-sex marriage in the country.

“It will be an uphill battle. Or better, it will be quite a challenge to have it passed,” Senator JV Ejercito said.

Ejercito stressed that the Senate is “very sensitive to the pulse of the Filipino people” when it comes to controversial legislation.

“Definitely the pulse will play a factor in our decision towards controversial and sensitive issues such as same-sex marriage,” said Ejercito.

Sen. Sonny Angara echoed Ejercito’s stance on same-sex marriage, saying he expects “vigorous debates” on the proposal.

“Senators are quite sensitive to public opinion so it may play a role. I also expect some senators who are members or close to some religious groups to not be in favor of this,” said Angara.

“Thus I foresee a lot of vigorous debates on the bill going forward,” he added.

The same stance was made by Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, citing his conversations with fellow senators who, this early, have already expressed opposition over the proposed same-sex marriage bill.

“I believe same-sex marriage will have a very difficult time in the Senate as I personally asked several of my colleagues about it in the past and almost all of them have signified their opposition to it,” said Zubiri.

“I personally have serious reservations on it and I’m inclined not to vote for it for personal and religious beliefs. In other words dadaan pa siya sa butas ng karayom sa Senado (it will have to pass the eye of the needle,” he added.

For his part, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel II said he wants to see first what the proposal is all about.

“Dapat ipaliwanag muna ng mabuti ano ba ang layunin at laman ng panukala na ‘yan (It should be explained what that proposal is all about),” said Pimentel.

The position of the senators goes with the majority of the Filipino people as shown by a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll showing 61 percent of respondents are opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage.

The survey also showed 44 percent of 1,200 respondents in the nationwide poll said they “strongly disagree” with the proposed law legalizing same sex marriage while 17 percent said they “somewhat disagree” with it.

The survey results also confirmed the palace view that the nation is not yet ready for same-sex marriage.

The SWS survey, held from March 23 to 27, showed most of those who opposed same-sex marriage belonged to the Christian religion, followed by members of the Muslim and Roman Catholic faiths.

Only 22 percent of respondents said they agree with the proposal to have a same-sex marriage law, while 16 percent said they are still undecided on their support to the proposed law.

SWS posed the premise “there should be a law that will allow the civil union of two men or two women” in which the respondents were given the choices of agreeing, disagreeing or being undecided with specific degrees on their sentiment.

SWS said the opposition to the civil union of same-sex couples was dominant “in all areas and religions.”

The survey indicated the lowest net agreement score came from the Visayas at -45 (21 percent agree, 66 percent disagree), followed by Luzon at -42 (20 percent agree, 63 percent disagree), Mindanao at -38 (21 percent agree, 58 percent disagree) and Metro Manila at -27 (29 percent agree, 56 percent disagree).