Risa Hontiveros

Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros is a senator in the 19th Congress, serving her second term since 2022.

Known as a women’s rights, gender equality, and anti-corruption advocate, Hontiveros was first elected to the Senate in 2016. When she ran for reelection in 2022, she was the lone opposition candidate to secure a Senate seat, garnering 15.4 million votes and placing 11th out of the 12 winners. Hontiveros was a vocal critic of the bloody anti-drug campaign of the Rodrigo Duterte administration.

A mother who became a solo parent to four children after the death of her husband Francisco Baraquel Jr. in 2005, Hontiveros principally authored the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act. She was also the principal author of the Expanded Maternity Leave Law, Philippine Mental Health Law, Safe Spaces Act, Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children Law, and Philippine HIV and AIDS Policy Act, among others.

Hontiveros also served as representative of the Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party in the House from 2004 to 2010. As a congresswoman, she helped push for the passage of the Reproductive Health Law. After her two terms in the lower chamber, Hontiveros launched two failed Senate bids in 2010 and 2013, before winning on her third attempt in 2016.

Hontiveros was first exposed to social issues and activism as a high school student at St. Scholastica’s College Manila from 1979 to 1983, according to her website. She continued advocating for marginalized communities as a college student at Ateneo de Manila University, where she earned a social sciences degree in 1987. Hontiveros also briefly worked in broadcast journalism before later entering politics. She is a sister of broadcast journalist Ana Patricia “Pia” Hontiveros-Pagkalinawan.