Quezon City 4th district Rep. Jesus "Bong" Suntay made an offensive remark toward showbiz personality Anne Curtis on Tuesday, March 3 during the House Committee on Justice hearing on the impeachment complaints filed against Vice President Sara Duterte.

Suntay--who had been gallantly defending Duterte from her impeachment allegations--was rebuked by the committee members as a result.

He is an ex-officio member of the justice panel by way of his position as House deputy minority leader.

It all started when Suntay was trying to rebut the allegation of sedition in one of the impeachment complaints against Duterte.

"Whether individually or collectively, looking at all the videos show, there can be nothing seditious that can be attributed to the Vice President. In fact, there is nothing for her to denounce, no statements to denounce, because we cannot attribute statements made by other people to the Vice President just because she was there," he told the panel.

Suntay was referring to a prayer rally that Duterte attended in 2024. "So mere presence in the rally does not make her actions seditious. That is very clear."

Then, to supposedly hammer home his point, he recalled a very specific situation involving Curtis, whom he said was "very beautiful" in person.

"Lastly, alam niyo minsan, nasa Shangri-La ako, nakita ko si Anne Curtis, ang ganda-ganda pala niya. You know, may desire sa loob ko na, nag-init talaga, na-imagine ko na lang kung ano’ng pwedeng mangyari. Pero syempre hanggang imagination na lang ‘yon. Pero ‘di naman siguro ako pwedeng kasuhan kung ano ang na-imagine ko eh," Suntay said.

(Lastly, you know, one time I was at Shangri-La and I saw Anne Curtis, she’s really beautiful. Honestly, I felt a strong desire inside, I got heated, and I just imagined what could happen. But of course, it stayed only in my imagination. And I don’t think I could be charged for something I only imagined.)

Committee Vice Chairperson San Juan City lone district Rep. Ysabel Maria Zamora interjected and moved to strike out Suntay's comments from the record.

Suntay responded by saying, "There is nothing sexual do’n sa sinabi ko, nothing immoral, it’s just, I said, may na-imagine ako, I think there is nothing wrong."

At this point, it was only the Quezon City solon who mentioned the word "sexual".

Zamora explained what prompted her to make such motion: "Madam Chair, with all due respect to my friend Congressman Bong Suntay, it is just the start of the Women’s Month, and I don’t think that we should be hearing such comments from our dear colleagues."

"We’re not censuring anything, but we are reminding them that in fact, we should support women by not saying these statements," she said.

But Suntay was adamant that he was indeed being "censored" by the justice panel chaired by Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville "Jinky Bitrics" Luistro.

"I think we are starting a dangerous precedent, because now we are censuring manifestations which is neither illegal nor immoral. So imagine, we are conducting a hearing, but now statements which are neither immoral nor illegal can be stricken out of the record without any reason," he said.

Manila 6th district Rep. Bienvenido "Benny" Abante Jr., a pastor-preacher, backed Zamora's motion. "I want that deleted from the record," he said.

Suntay's remarks were officially stricken out following a 13-2-2 (yes-no-abstain) vote.

When Suntay insisted that there was nothing wrong with what he said or the specific words he used, Luistro answered: "The chair would like to state that if the manifestation of the justice member offends the sensitivity of the justice members, then it means we are crossing the boundaries already."

"After all, we rule here by the judgment of the justice members," she added.

"As to whether or not the manifestation of the honorable Suntay is offensive of our morality is a judgement that belongs exclusively to the justice [committee] members. I think the majority have spoken already," Luistro further said when Suntay kept on pleading his case after the vote.