Apologize to our mothers, says a youth group to Sen. Tito Sotto

Akbayan-youth today demanded an apology from Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto in response to his statements during the Senate RH bill debates concerning women who regularly die from maternal mortality.

According to Leloy Claudio, Akbayan-youth National Chairperson said the Filipino youth will not tolerate lies, especially if these concern their mothers.

“Senator Sotto must apologize for his callous and insulting remarks made against our mothers,” Claudio said.

“In one fell swoop, Sotto spat on the suffering of Filipino mothers. Maybe an affluent man like him can disregard the plight of indigent women. But the Filipino youth know better. These are our mothers and we will not let a sexist senator lie to us about their plight,” Claudio added.

Claudio challenged Sotto to “transcend the narrowness of the lawmaker’s perspective.”

“Maybe he should spend time in PGH or Fabella and see that women do die or suffer from severe illnesses related to pregnancy. After which, he should spend time with the families of these women, particularly the children,” Claudio said.

Video of Sen. Sotto mocking and laughing at the fact that 11 mothers die everyday [from 7:40-8:52] via @ffreethinkers

Claudio also objected to Sotto’s disregard of scientific data. “It is an accepted fact that an average of eleven women die every day because of pregnancy-related causes. This was established in 2006 by a Family Planning Survey of the National Statistics Office – a fact affirmed by the UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children report in 2009,” Claudio asserted.

“As a representative of the people, Senator Sotto cannot bury his head in the sand. Research and statistics exist for a reason. Does the senator honestly think he can wish away realities discovered by credible organizations? Does he want to challenge the credibility of the UN?’ Claudio asked.

“The youth demand an end to deception. It’s about time we unite with our mothers and sisters to promote reproductive health for all.”

Here was twitter reactions yesterday: