Dear Sen. Tito Sotto, Thanks for #NaAnoLang. Love, Moms

Despite Senator Vicente "Tito" Sotto III's track record of saying the wrong things (cases in point: click here and here), they've never hurt his reputation; in fact, the man held the third senatorial spot with over 16 million votes in the last election. That is until Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Judy Taguiwalo came into the picture. Whatever legacy Sen. Sotto was hoping to achieve in his political career, it has been undone by his words, now cemented in a hashtag -- #NaAnoLang. 

Sec. Taguiwalo three-sentence reply illustrated why the senator should not have uttered those words in the first place. "Senator Sotto, I teach women's studies. We respect all kinds of families, and that includes solo parents. Thank you." (May we pause a minute and give this woman a standing ovation, a thumbs-up, and all the -more-power-to-you emoticons we can find for not letting senator's crass comment pass.)    

The senator, however, didn't seem to get the message. In his apology, he insisted it was a joke, and he didn't mean to offend anyone. Pinays refused to let him off the hook. On our Facebook alone, people were incredulous and brought up the following points.  

Here we go again with the "it's not a joke."   

It's the Senate -- not Eat Bulaga, sir.

The apology shows the senator doesn't get it.  

When one commenter said "tao lang naman siya nagkakamali," one replied: 

On the plus side, the whole awful episode became an early Mother's Day celebration. On social media, single moms started making status posts that introduced themselves as #NaAnoLang or #NaAnoLang Din, while kids decided to honor their moms with those hashtags. As many said, let's make it a badge of honor. Hand it to the moms to make this misogynistic affair a celebration of a woman's beauty, strength, and courage.