Dear Congressman Bong Suntay, Your Daughters Deserve Better

Dear Congressman Bong Suntay, 

Your daughters deserve better.

One day, they will grow up and walk into rooms just like the one you were in this week—rooms where decisions are made, where people debate ideas, where power is exercised. They will enter workplaces, meetings, and professional spaces hoping to be taken seriously for who they are and what they bring to the table.

And when they do, they will hope that the men around them understand something fundamental: that women deserve to be spoken about with respect.

During a House committee hearing discussing impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte, Quezon City Fourth District Representative Bong Suntay attempted to illustrate a legal point by recounting a tasteless anecdote involving actress Anne Curtis—ironically, just in time for International Women’s Month, when we're supposed to reflect on respect, equality, and the progress women have fought for.

“Nakita ko si Anne Curtis. Ang ganda-ganda pala niya… May desire sa loob ko na nag-init talaga. Na-imagine ko na lang kung ano ang puwedeng mangyari. Pero syempre, hanggang imagination na lang 'yon. Hindi naman siguro ako pwedeng kasuhan dahil kung anu-ano 'yong na-imagine ko.” 

By now, you've already been told a thousand times over that this is beyond inappropriate, Congressman. This is repulsive.

A congressional hearing is not the place for cheap barroom conversations. It is not a locker room. It is a formal space of governance where the country’s laws and institutions are debated. The nation’s leaders are expected to conduct themselves with the discipline and respect the office demands. To suddenly insert a sexualized anecdote about a woman who was not present, who had no agency in the narrative, and who had nothing to do with the topic at hand was not only misguided but also telling of the men who hold power in this country.

Anne Curtis, one of the most recognizable celebrities in the Philippines, is a seasoned actress, television host, and public figure who has spent decades in the spotlight. If someone of her stature can be casually turned into the punchline of a male fantasy in a government hearing, what does that say about how ordinary women are treated in everyday spaces? 

If something like this can happen inside Congress—the very institution meant to represent the country’s leadership, what message does it say about the culture of power that women must still navigate today?

This is particularly troubling in a country that already has laws meant to protect women from exactly this kind of behavior.

The Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995 first recognized how power can be abused in workplaces and institutions, making sexual harassment illegal in environments where authority and influence exist. The Magna Carta of Women (Republic Act 9710) affirms women’s right to dignity and respect in all spheres of life, including public institutions. The Safe Spaces Act (Republic Act 11313)—more popularly known as the Bawal Bastos Law—was enacted to address gender-based harassment in streets, workplaces, and public spaces, acknowledging how harmful language and behavior toward women shape the environments they must navigate every day.

These laws exist because the Philippines has long recognized a universal truth: that simply being a woman can expose us to dangers society still allows to persist. 

Congressman, your daughters deserve a man in their lives who would never speak about a woman the way you spoke about Anne Curtis in this week's congressional hearing.

They deserve a father who models respect every single day. They deserve someone who will teach them the most important lessons they will carry into the world—that their worth is never defined by how men perceive them, that they deserve dignity in every room they enter, and that they should never feel small when men in power reduce women to objects of sexual fantasy.

I hope they grow up confident and self-assured. I hope they become women who understand their value, who know how to set boundaries, and who are equipped to protect themselves in a world that is still far too comfortable disrespecting women.

You, as a public servant, have a responsibility to embody the values the laws of this country claim to uphold. And you, as a human being, have a responsibility to afford women the basic decency they are entitled to.

Your daughters deserve better. And frankly, so do the rest of us.