Members of the House Committee on Women and Gender Equality have joined the chorus of condemnation toward Quezon City 4th district Rep. Jesus "Bong" Suntay's inappropriate remarks about showbiz personality Anne Curtis.

In a statement Tuesday night, March 3, Laguna 1st district Rep. Ann Matibag slammed Suntay's "sexist" remarks, and at the same time called for "zero tolerance on misogyny".

"Mariing kinokondena ng Committee on Women and Gender Equality ang mga pahayag ni Congressman Bong Suntay sa hearing ngayong umaga kaugnay kay Anne Curtis. Hindi ito simpleng biro harmless na komento," Matibag said.

(The Committee on Women and Gender Equality strongly condemns the statements made by Congressman Bong Suntay during this morning’s hearing regarding Anne Curtis. These were not mere jokes or harmless comments.)

"Ang pagre-reduce sa isang babae bilang object of sexual imagination, lalo na sa isang opisyal na pagdinig, ay tahasang sexist at nakakahiya. Wala itong Iugar sa anumang institusyong dapat nagtataguyod ng respeto at propesyonalismo," the committee said, through Matibag.

(Reducing a woman to an object of sexual imagination, especially in an official hearing, is blatantly sexist and embarrassing. It has no place in any institution that ought to uphold respect and professionalism.)

"Public office demands discipline and accountability. Freedom of speech is never a free pass for misogyny. Hindi namin it palalagpasin. Hindi namin ito ino- normalize (We will not let this pass. We won't have this normalized)," the women's panel further said.

It was Tuesday afternoon, during the hearing of the House Committee on Justice on the impeachment complaints filed against Vice President Sara Duterte, when Suntay said: "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."

(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.)

Suntay, a deputy minority leader, made these remarks on the occasion of Women’s Month.

Perhaps just as astonishing as Suntay's actual remarks about Curtis was his insistence that he didn't say anything wrong or offensive.

"There is nothing sexual do’n sa sinabi ko (with what I said), nothing immoral, it’s just, I said, may na-imagine ako (I imagined something), I think there is nothing wrong," the Quezon City solon said during the hearing, wherein he was one of the handful who discredited the impeachable offense allegations against Duterte.

Assistant Majority Leader Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong didn't concur with Suntay's claim that nothing harmful was uttered.

"The comment made by one of our colleagues may not necessarily [be] immoral [or] illegal but the way it was said and how it was premised objectifies women, and the choice of language is inappropriate and to some extent unparliamentarian," Adiong wrote on his Instagram.

Negros Occidental 3rd district Rep. Javier Miguel "Javi" Benitez, a neophyte congressman, also spoke out against his much older colleague in a Facebook post Tuesday night.

"Women's Month na, tapos sa mismong Kamara pa nanggagaling yung kailangan ng Safe Spaces Act (It's Women Month now, and he who would've thought the Safe Spaces Act would be needed for someone in Congress)," he wrote, with a facepalm emoji.

Suntay's fellow member from the minority bloc, Akbayan Party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña, said: "As public officials it is our duty to always uphold respect for women and to create safe spaces for women everywhere. I sincerely urge Rep. Suntay to apologize and voluntarily undergo a gender sensitivity training."