Freedom from 'Under the Skirt' movement to support battered Pinoy husbands

Call it men’s empowerment — if there is such a term — or the revenge of the ‘macho bloc’. 
 
Senators Tito Sotto and Gregorio Honasan II were reported in the media as having admitted, although in jest, that they sympathise with their ‘bros’ who allegedly suffer abuses from their wives, since they are both ‘under the saya’, which refers to henpecked husbands, but its literal translation from Tagalog is is ‘under the skirt’.
 
“It’s because he is a henpecked husband, that’s why he can talk so bravely,” Sotto, formerly an actor, comedian and TV host, told reporters jokingly, referring to Honasan. “Tell him I said that. And when he hears about it, I already know what Greg would answer—‘So is he,’ ” Sotto said.
 
Turned out Honasan and Sotto were seriously supporting moves to protect the so-called battered husbands by way of legislation—an idea that surfaced on Father’s Day, June 16, when deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte was asked if the President would be open to it.
 
If such a bill would be filed in the Senate, Honasan earlier said he would support it, citing a constitutional provision on “equal protection clause and principle”, according to a report Wednesday in the ‘Philippine Daily Inquirer’.
 
In a text message to ‘Inquirer’ reporter Cathy Yamsuan, Honasan acknowledged—also in jest—that, “I’m really afraid of Misis, hehehe, like my BFF [best friend forever] Senator Sotto.”
 
Better known as Gringo, Honasan was a distinguished Army colonel who played a key role in the 1986 bloodless People’s Revolution that toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.
But he also grabbed the headlines as among the leaders of a military rebel group that staged several coup attempts against democracy icon Corazon Aquino, who succeeded Marcos and the mother of President Benigno Aquino III.
 
Honasan’s wife, the former Jane Umali, is a medical technologist who also dabbles in interior designing. They have five children.
 
Sotto’s wife is Helen Gamboa, a very popular film star and singer during her younger days and who has recently returned to acting.
 
Despite the two senators’ sure support for battered husbands, Sotto has expressed concern whether any victim would be willing to testify as a resource person at a Senate hearing should any senators get serious about considering filing a bill aimed at protecting battered husbands.
 
Sotto recalled the former senator Teresa Aquino-Oreta, sister of the incumbent President’s late father, who had held hearings on a bill filed by another former senator, Luisa Ejercito, penalising acts of violence committed against women.
 
He said he once asked Aquino-Oreta, who chaired the Senate women and family relations committee, why she and Ejercito did not include the battered husbands in their bill. To which Aquino-Oreta replied, “Are you willing to testify?”
 
“There are some but not too many,” Sotto now said. “No one will testify. It will be difficult to pass. The intention is good but no one will come forward to defend it.” Then he added, “We’ll just have to show them we’re real men.”

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