Hontiveros: ‘Pastillas,’ Pogos and facing up to ‘The Punisher’
Just three years ago, the mammoth task of reviving a defeated liberal opposition fell on the shoulders of two-termer Sen. Risa Hontiveros. When she took her oath of office in June 2022, she vowed to work hard to grow the opposition ranks and “fight back harder—against rumors, lies, propaganda and fake news.”
“Let me make this even clearer, this is a stern warning to all the dubious characters in the fake news universe: This time, we will not let your reckless disregard for truth slander our democracy—our country—ever again,” she warned.
It was a tall promise, made difficult by her being the only opposition figure in the hotly contested Senate. But despite her solitary position, Hontiveros emerged as a preeminent figure in the 19th Congress.
From her impactful investigations into the systemic abuse of women and girls by pastor Apollo Quiboloy and his Kingdom of Jesus Christ sect, to her exposé on former Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo’s citizenship, Hontiveros’ efforts have paved the way for meaningful policies that transcend partisan lines. Her hourslong hearings, especially on Guo’s case, had “teleserye”-junkie Filipinos glued to their screens for almost a year.
Thanks to brave women
In the Senate, she also stood out as a singular progressive voice, championing legislation on divorce, reproductive health and sex education.
But Hontiveros is not one to take credit. Instead, she has always acknowledged the real force that has propped her work: women who were brave enough to share their stories—“[and because] of their testimonies so crucial to government investigation, we have made the powerful accountable.”
That she uses her power to amplify their voices is why she was chosen as one of the Inquirer Women of Power 2025, which recognizes 25 women whose “remarkable achievements and commitment to action continue to drive positive change in their communities and inspire future generations.”
“We celebrate these victories because of the women who chose to use their voices to speak truth to power,” she wrote on Facebook after receiving the award. “Even when it was hard, even when they were filled with fear and uncertainty, their desire to fight for justice and speak truth prevailed every time.”
Familiar struggle
Like most progressives, Hontiveros’ roots are in activism: she was a peace advocate who marched in the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution and even became a member of the government panel for peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines in the early 2000s.
For this, she received the 10 Outstanding Young Men award for peace and advocacy in 2001, and was one of 27 Filipinas nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
Her day job, meanwhile, was journalism. Shortly after graduating from Ateneo de Manila University, Hontiveros first worked as an anchor for IBC and then GMA Network before finding her way into politics.
In 2004, Hontiveros became the representative of socialist-democratic party list Akbayan in the House of Representatives, where she was among the vocal minority in the Arroyo administration.
Initially, the greenhorn was shocked to see the real inner workings of politics: “They can be at each other’s throats while on the podium, and then off mic, they’re backslapping and high-fiving, not even serious about their anger. Of course, there is a lot of corruption, and wheeling and dealing, just not the seriousness that I or my party thinks really mattered, the issues that people suffered for or that gave them hope.”
Legislative work, arrest
During her tenure at the House, Hontiveros authored the cheaper medicines law and was one of the key sponsors of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with Extension and Reform Law. She was also one of the first champions of a reproductive health law to provide women and families access to reproductive health and modern family planning services—though it was only in 2012 that the measure became law.
Though born to a prominent family—she counts among her lineage a former associate justice, national artists and musical pioneers—Hontiveros is well-acquainted with the hardships and struggles faced by the victims she often dialogues with.
In 2006, plainclothesmen arrested the neophyte lawmaker who was leading a protest on International Women’s Day in Mendiola. Even then, she had made her political lines clear.
“It is not enough to say that women are ashamed of [then President] Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Her underhanded, draconian tactics betray her capacity to be the next Marcos. Does this arrest mean that protesting against her antiwomen policies is tantamount to rebellion?” she asked.
A keen nose
Her track record, however, would not carry her to the Senate until 2016. It was then, under Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, that Hontiveros’ focus intensified, shifting from “safe” egalitarian policies like universal health care and gender equality to a more forceful defense of human rights.
In 2017, Hontiveros took a leading role in initiating Senate investigations into the police killings of teenagers Kian delos Santos, Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman in Caloocan City. These inquiries eventually led to the first criminal cases and convictions against law enforcement officers involved in the bloody drug war.
Hontiveros also demonstrated her investigative prowess in high-profile Senate hearings.
In 2020, she exposed the “pastillas scam,” a widespread bribery operation within the Bureau of Immigration that facilitated the illegal entry of Chinese nationals.
Going after Yang, Guo
The following year, she played a key role in uncovering irregularities in the Pharmally scandal, which involved questionable multibillion-peso contracts for pandemic-related supplies and implicated several wanted fugitives with ties to Duterte’s close associate and former economic adviser Michael Yang.
“Why is our administration doing business with wanted fugitives? They have a warrant of arrest and are being hunted in other countries, but when they come here to the Philippines, they bag a billion-dollar contract?” Hontiveros demanded. “That does not seem right.”
Her influence would peak in 2024 after back-to-back bombshell inquiries into the abuses of Duterte’s close confidante Quiboloy and Guo’s alleged links to illegal Philippine offshore gaming operations (Pogos) and origins as a “Chinese spy.”
To ‘The Punisher’
In October, she led the Senate blue ribbon investigation into the extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration, where she got the former chief executive to publicly take full responsibility for all the abuses committed in his drug war.
While most of her colleagues, fearful of public backlash, recused from interpellating the ex-president, Hontiveros did not mince words. “It should not be an honor to be called ‘The Punisher,’ when thousands of innocent people, including babies, have died in your name,” Hontiveros told him.
In a column she wrote for the Inquirer, Hontiveros said she drew her strength from the women and girls “who shake the very foundations of patriarchy. Those who shatter lies and propaganda, until there is nothing left but the unadulterated truth.”
“In a world that has come to expect deference, silence, and polite smiles, every woman has an opportunity to become a force so powerful that we cannot be dismissed,” she said.
