An ode to the women who speak up
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.
In my years as chairperson of the Senate committee on women, I have had the privilege and honor to meet women and girls whose spirit this world has tried to break.
This is an ode to her—to them. To the ones who found the courage to speak. To the ones who trembled, but stood up and did not accept injustice, even as it loomed heavy over them.
Two years ago, a case was brought to my office about a young woman, Amanda,* who had filed sexual assault charges against her abuser.
In the affidavit, she retold, in horrifying detail, how she was raped. How she was instructed to wear a certain pair of pajamas and to spray a certain type of scent on her body before she was led into a room where her body was not her own. How she just stared at the ceiling, crying.
Weeks later, more women came forward. The same story, the same cruelty, the same abusive hands.
All of them were brainwashed, manipulated, made to believe that sacrificing their body was their duty to their “Father,” Apollo Quiboloy. I filed a Senate resolution to look into these allegations and led a hearing that provided a space for these women to amplify their voices.
Ging, now in her senior years, said she was only in her 30s when she was first abused by Quiboloy. She carried her silence for decades, believing she would have to take this story to her grave.
“Napakahirap magsalita kapag babae,” Ging said. It is never easy to speak up, especially when the world expects you to smooth your skirt and be quiet.
But when she heard the news of other women coming forward, it was as if the courage of those women gave her permission to speak, too. And so, she did.
Ging said the investigation of the Senate committee on women gave her a semblance of hope. Through the committee, she heard the voices of other women who stood beside her—the victim-survivors who came forward and even former Kingdom of Jesus Christ members who encouraged and believed her.
Amanda first filed her complaint in Davao against Quiboloy in 2018, while Ging—after 25 years of silence—made her experience public only in 2024. Now, Apollo Quiboloy is detained for a non-bailable offense.
Amanda and Ging’s courage also mirrors the courage of Carina,* a victim-survivor of human trafficking who also testified in the Senate as we investigated the rampant crimes tied to the Pogo industry.
At 15 years old, Carina had been trafficked, locked in a house, and was forced to cater to Chinese Pogo workers. She testified how another girl, also a minor just like her, contracted a sexually transmitted disease, and how that girl was forced to go back to work once she “recovered.”
And then, a few weeks later, there was Ivy,* a Taiwanese national, who thought she had gotten an advertising job in the Philippines, only to find herself trapped in a Pogo company. Like Carina, she was illegally detained by that company, sexually harassed, and physically abused by her Chinese boss. “They touched my body in front of other men, (while laughing) at me,” Ivy recalled during a press conference.
Through her determination, she was able to escape the premises, aided by good Samaritans on the streets, who then led her to people connected to my office.
It has been over four years since Carina and Ivy first shared their stories to the public. Now, Pogo is officially banned in the Philippines.
Our country has these women to thank for these historic victories. But these victories did not begin in our Senate hearings. They were forged by women who found the strength to speak, name their abusers, and expose the abuse they endured.
So this is for them, the women who shake the very foundations of patriarchy. Those who shatter lies and propaganda, until there is nothing left but the unadulterated truth.
This is for that unstoppable chorus, made up of women whose voices can no longer be ignored.
*Names were changed to protect their identity
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Sen. Risa Hontiveros is a health and women’s rights advocate and activist. She is chair of the Senate committee on women, children, family relations, and gender equality.
