PHOTO BYInstagram/ms.lotlotdeleon

Lotlot de Leon recently took to social media to speak up about being adopted. She shared an art card, saying “Adoptee Rights are Human Rights because though they may have been bought, sold, given away, taken, stolen, imported, exported, brokered, and treated like commodities…Adopted Persons are HUMAN BEINGS.”

Lotlot, 50, is known in and out of showbiz as an adopted daughter of Superstar Nora Aunor and Nora’s ex-husband Christopher de Leon, who’s also an iconic actor.

Lotlot poured her heart out in the caption: “So let’s just put this out here already! Yes I am adopted and yes I am also human! I am not a commodity, I am my own person who have feelings too.

“I am grateful for many things in my life. I am grateful for all the good and bad things that I have been through because those are what molded me to be who I am today! I accept what was and what is! I will keep on moving forward owning this life that was given to me.”

She added, “For those who are like me, never be ashamed of where you came from and your story! Continue to live your life because this is [100 emoji] percent yours! Love those who truly love you!”

She then made an appeal: “Oh and please to those who keep on discriminating ADOPTED kids, let go of the bigotry. It’s so unbecoming of a supposed “human being”!” She ended her caption with the hashtag, #hindiakorobot.

Adoption story

Lotlot has always known she’s an adopted child, she told this writer in a past interview for YES! Magazine. “People would say, ‘Ampon, ampon…A, eto ba ‘yong ampon?’ Even if they think I’m cute,” said the mother of four: Janine, Jessica, Diego, and Maxine.

(They are all using their father Ramon Christopher Gutierrez‘s last name. The 13-year marriage of Lotlot and Ramon Christopher, son of showbiz icons Pilita Corrales and Eddie Gutierrez, was annulled in 2008. Ten years later, Lotlot married her current husband, Fadi El Soury.)

Lotlot recalled being told that she was 7 months old when she was given away by her (biological) maternal grandmother to Nora’s mother. Nora then grew fond of the baby, whom she took in as her own child.

When Lotlot was about 4 years old, Nora married Christopher in 1975. She gained a father and, later on, a brother with the birth of the couple’s son Ian de Leon.

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Lotlot said her adoptive parents treated her and Ian equally. That’s why she’s using Christopher’s last name. The same goes for Nora’s three other adopted children: Matet, Kiko, and Kenneth.

Lotlot remembered she was around 7 years old when her mother Nora tried to explain the difference between her and Ian. She was given this explanation: “Ang pagkakaiba mo kay Ian ay si Ian, nanggaling sa tiyan ko. Ikaw, sa kanya”–referring to the Mama Mary icon–“Binigay ka niya sa akin, pero hindi ka galing sa loob ko.”

She confessed not understanding the whole concept of adoption then, but she had always wondered about her biological parents. “Parang sa kakasabi nila ng ‘Ampon ka,’ parang ako naman, ‘Oo nga, ampon ako. Sino ba’ng nanay at tatay ko? Automatic naman yata ‘yong mga tanong na gano’n.”

Lotlot said she turned to prayer, asking God, “Gusto ko pong makilala kung sino ang Mama’t Papa ko.” Her prayer was answered when she met her mother Eva Rodriguez in 1992 and her father Donald Lee Olson in 2009.