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- Tito Sotto made a remark on public groping.
- He stated that when a person teased by touching someone, inappropriately, he doesn’t consider it to be a harassment.
Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III experienced online slander after making a remark about groping or “hipo” during the hearing on Senate Bill No. 1326 also called as the Safe Spaces Bill on Wednesday.
Sotto asked the bill’s sponsor, Senator Risa Hontiveros, if whether the provision on gender-based street and public harassment under SB 1326 was similar to the anti-discrimination provisions of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity or Expression (SOGIE) bill.
The latter explained that the proposed act focuses on the “unwanted comments, gestures, and actions forced on a person in a public space without their consent and is directed at them because of their actual or perceived sex, gender, gender expression, or sexual orientation and identity.” and the SOGIE Bill on “discrimination on the basis of” SOGIE in terms of access to public service, including military service; employment, education, accreditation, medical service, or imposition of harsher sanctions.
Sotto proceeded to ask if the act of public harassment on the streets stated in the bill is limited and “gender based”. “Are we not limiting the act of harassment when it’s committed on streets and public spaces by including the qualifier, gender based?
“Baka pwedeng iwasan natin ‘yun kasi for instance just to set an example: in an alley, a straight guy touched the groin of another straight guy who just happened to pass by just to vex him and not because of the person’s SOGIE. In this bill, would the offender be held liable?”
The Senate President then if ever the offender was only playing with another person, he doesn’t think they’re liable of the violation. “For example, ‘yung sinabi ko na binibiro lang, hinipuan na ganun, will they be liable? [Hontiveros] said yes, the answer I think is no.”
Video courtesy of @beareyno | Twitter
Hontiveros replied that the Safe Spaces Act will not be limited to only one gender. She also clarified that anyone may file harassment charges against a person who touched them if ever they felt offended.
The woman senator added, “Ang babaeng hinipuan ng lalake, hindi po namin yun tinatanaw na biro because that truly makes women feel unsafe.”
