Risa Hontiveros banks on people’s ‘revenge’

BANKING ON ORDINARY CITIZENS NO. 16 Senatorial candidate Risa Hontiveros blames the “sheer weight of traditional politics” for her drop in the survey ratings. EDWIN BACASMAS

MANILA, Philippines—It was the last week of the 90-day campaign period and senatorial candidate Risa Hontiveros was visibly tired from the daily grind, particularly the road trip that took her as far north as Nueva Ecija and as far south as Batangas all in one day.

A yellow-clad Hontiveros, with her signature purple alampay (shawl) slung on her shoulder, visited the Inquirer offices in Makati City on Wednesday for an interview with editors and reporters and some off-the-record banter.

Hontiveros blamed the “sheer weight of traditional politics in our country” when asked why it was difficult for her to move substantially upward in the election surveys.

Despite President Aquino’s strong endorsement and her diligent attendance in the administration coalition’s slate rallies across the country, Hontiveros remained outside the winning circle of 12, placing 16th in the last Social Weather Stations poll.

Pulse Asia, another independent pollster, placed her and fellow Team PNoy laggard former Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. in a statistical tie with a few other candidates at 12th place the week before.

“Before, there were three Gs—guns, goons and gold,” Hontiveros said, referring to the influences that used to run Philippine politics. “Now there are three Ps. No, not public-private partnership but pera (money), patalastas (political advertisements) and political clan.”

Hontiveros is banking on what she called the “revenge of the ordinary citizens” to reverse the trend favoring the politically pedigreed in national elections.

Exclusive club

“We have to wage people power through the ballot. Let us change the direction of the elections because the Senate has been like an exclusive club of a few all this time,” Hontiveros said.

“The only way to break this is through what I would like to call the revenge of the ordinary citizens. The only way for ordinary citizens to break our exclusion is to fight back. And one easy way to fight back is through our vote,” she added.

Letter to Binay

Hontiveros, a former activist and a two-term (Akbayan) party-list representative, wrote an open letter to political first-timer and Vice President Jejomar Binay’s daughter Nancy Binay the past week, after the United Nationalist Alliance candidate turned down her invitation to a debate supposedly because she wanted to spend more time campaigning.

In her letter, Hontiveros asked Binay if she would put the country’s interests above her family’s and whether Binay would rather support a corrupt antireproductive health (RH) advocate instead of a clean RH law supporter.

“Her answer was rather sad.  She supposedly said that I should just go on motorcades,” Hontiveros said.

She said the Catholic leadership’s stand against the RH law, which she staunchly supported as an Akbayan party-list group representative in the House, didn’t make much of a dent in her campaign. Neither has her being associated with what her group calls “the democratic left” been a negative factor in her bid to woo votes.

Hontiveros reached out to the predominantly anti-RH Catholic hierarchy, saying the RH law was only one issue that incidentally placed them at two opposing sides.

RH law

“There were issues that we were alongside each other,” Hontiveros said, referring to the enactment of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with Extension and Reform, and matters such as the protection of human rights.

As a private citizen (she failed to win a Senate seat in 2010), Hontiveros actively campaigned for what became the country’s RH law alongside staunch RH advocates Sen. Pia Cayetano and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman.

Hontiveros said that so far, there is nothing in the RH law she wants to change.

Next battle

“The next battle is in the Supreme Court,” Hontiveros said, referring to the issues on constitutionality raised against the RH law in the high tribunal.

The Supreme Court has issued a temporary restraining order on the implementation of the RH law, favoring petitioners who argue that the law offends religious beliefs and fosters abortion.

But with the RH law’s enactment earlier this year, Hontiveros said the next campaign for women should be the adoption of laws that would institutionalize the provision of funds for both jobs generation and small businesses for women.

“There should be government support for women, including solo mothers. I always say that because I’m a solo mother,” she said.

One mechanism of support for women, Hontiveros said, is for the government to set aside a significant amount to generate employment and provide capital for micro- and medium-scale entrepreneurship for women.

“Now that the economy is growing, women should have half of its benefits. We’re at least half the population,” Hontiveros said.

Ready to fight

Hontiveros, nonetheless, indicated that her pro-women advocacy was only one part of what she stands for.

She said she shares with her celebrity endorsers singers Aiza Seguerra, Noel Cabangon, Ogie Alcasid and Regine Velasquez and stand-up comedian Chokoleit such advocacies as good governance, women’s rights and even those of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

Tired as she may have been following an uphill political campaign the last three months, it appears Hontiveros has yet to forget her activist roots that first took her to the streets, including the anticorruption and antiabuse demonstrations during the Arroyo administration.

Asked what she wants the electorate to remember most about her, Hontiveros said, “Palaban (That I’m ready to fight).”