Risa Hontiveros to Tito Sotto: Solo motherhood is no joke

Senator Risa Hontiveros on Thursday scored her colleague, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, over the latter’s controversial remark on solo parents.

In a text message, Hontiveros said “being a solo mother is no joke at all.”

“We, solo moms, take our child rearing and our work outside the home very seriously,” Hontiveros, herself a solo mother, said.

Hontiveros said confirmation hearings on Cabinet appointees should be used by legislators to ask questions related to the nominee's post.

Sotto had earned the ire of netizens over a supposed “joke” to Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo on solo parents during the Cabinet official’s confirmation hearing held Wednesday morning.

While he apologized, Sotto explained that “anything under the sun” may be asked during hearings held by the Commission on Appointments (CA), of which he is a member of.

Hontiveros said asking questions did not entail making fun of others.

“‘Anything under the sun’ may be asked that is relevant to confirmation proceedings, including civil status, but we legislators must not make fun of others,” she said. 

“All solo mothers deserve respect, all mothers deserve respect, all women deserve respect,” Hontiveros added.

During her confirmation hearing at the CA Committee on Labor, Employment and Social Welfare, Taguiwalo was asked by Sotto if she was single and a solo parent.

Taguiwalo said she has two daughters, and that she “never had a whole ‘mother-father children’ kind of thing.”

Sotto then said that "in the street language, when you have children and you are single, ang tawag diyan ay na-ano lang."

Taguiwalo then told Sotto: "Senator Sotto, I teach women's studies in UP so we respect all kinds of families, and that includes solo parents. Thank you."

Sotto had apologized for his controversial remark, saying he will be the last person to disrespect women, having two daughters who are also raising children on their own. —NB, GMA News