Representative Geraldine Roman became the first transgender elected into public office in the predominantly Catholic Philippines yesterday, making headway in the country which often gives such minority group a raw deal.

As reported by social news website Rappler.com, she won in the first legislative district seat of Bataan yesterday, which saw her elected into the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Philippine Congress.

Similar to the US Congress, the Philippine legislative assembly or Congress of the Philippines is a bicameral body comprising the lower house of Representative and the Senate, which is the upper house.

Roman, 49, who hails from the Liberal Party (LP), reportedly garnered 104,287 votes or 62 percent of the total votes cast defeating her opponent Danilo Malana from the Aksyon Demokratiko Party, with a majority of over 40,000 votes.

Malana won 63,881 votes, or 38 percent out of the total votes cast.

The first congressional district of Bataan comprises the municipalities of Abucay, Dinalupihan, Hermosa, Morong, Orani, and Samal.

Rappler.com noted that her victory is a watershed moment in Philippine history as the first transgender member of the House of Representatives, in a country where legislators compare couples in same-sex unions as "worse than animals" and members of the Lesbians Gay Bisexuals and Trangenders (LGBT) community are told to go to another planet.

According to the news site, Roman is the daughter of former Bataan Representative Antonino 'Tony' Roman, who served three consecutive terms in the 11th, 12th and 13th Congress, between 1998 and 2007.

He was also later appointed by President Benigno Aquino III as the head of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office from 2010 to 2012.

The article observed that her appointment may help to spread laws enacted at the local government level to protect LGBTs and minority groups from discrimination, and at the federal level where she may be able to support and even push forward such issues in the legislative assembly.