I hope you’re staying warm in this stormy weather. 

Did you have a shimenet weekend? Those off social media are blessed. Thankfully, I found an antidote to all the shimenet iterations that have flooded my feed in the last few days: the 35-year-old mayor of Pasig City, Vico Sotto.

Mayor Vico sat down for an hour with Rappler senior producer and reporter JC Gotinga in a Rappler Talk episode that aired on Friday, August 30. If you suffer from occasional bouts of wanting to resign as a Filipino, you need to listen to this young man who slayed the Eusebios’ old politics in 2019 and is gunning for reelection for a last term in May 2025. In the interview, Vico was both forthright and measured, stern and at ease, a nerd and a politician. Not perfect with still a lot to learn, by his own admission, but certainly a breath of fresh air in a country of bratty, high-spending, and self-promoting elected executives.

From a high-profile stint in his first two years in office (remember when he sided with striking unionists a month into the post or when he confronted a businessman for demolishing shanties in the city?), Vico slowly stepped out of the glare of national attention and just focused on managing a city of 803,159 people (2020 census). His biggest headline beyond Pasig was his decision in November 2022, six months after a landslide reelection, to quit his party, Aksyon Demokratiko. Aksyon’s standard-bearer in the May 2022 presidential elections was then-Manila mayor Isko Moreno, a new recruit who was elected party president in 2021. Vico didn’t say this was the reason for leaving the party, but he said enough by pointing out that the party founded by the late senator Raul Roco was “no longer a group of individuals with similar political goals and ideals.” 

Key takeaways from the Rappler Talk with the Pasig mayor: 

• The public expected him to run after the corrupt politicians who ran city hall before him. Vico said he chose not to, deciding instead to focus on the present and his future plans. The idealists probably disagreed with me, he said, but “I learned realpolitik as a political science student.” His mission was to lay down the foundations of honest governance and put in place systems that the corrupt would find difficult to monkey around with.
• Vico stuck to his no-epal commitment of not attaching tarpaulin names to local projects. Why? It’s part of educating citizens that government projects come from their taxes, not from politicians. It’s not been easy, as he recalled an instance when he was chatting with a constituent who chided him for not doing enough for his barangay (village). They were, in fact, seated beside a project that was renovated under his term. But the man wouldn’t know because it was not labeled a Sotto project.
• Vico conceded that improving systems and workflows don’t get attention, but he did three things that brought services direct to his constituents. The annual Christmas gifts were brought door to door instead of through agencies or officials, to avoid palakasan. Public hospitals were ordered to accommodate all Pasig residents and they did not need to have a health card to avail of health services. And he regularized contractuals who, in the past, were forced to make up for low salary via illegal means. 
• Vico’s primary focus, however, was the procurement process. In his view, reforming it addresses the chunk of corruption in Pasig (or any local government for that matter, he said). You clean up procurement, you clean up the government, he explained, because the entire process feeds a “corruption ecosystem.” In 2021, the US State Department named him anti-corruption champion, the only Filipino among the awardees.

Surely he must have been tempted to go the other way? Whenever that arose, Vico said, he would go back to his list of non-negotiables which he had written down when he campaigned for mayor and which he and his core of advisers keep tabs of. The list breaks down his mission, he said, which is to institute meaningful — not epal — change in Pasig. (Watch the entire interview here.) 

Besides Vico, several mayors have made great strides in streamlining processes and improving how services can reach their constituents to make their cities liveable. We have the honor of bringing them together on October 19 at our #BeTheChange Social Good Summit (SGS). Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, Muntinlupa Mayor Ruffy Biazon, Isabela City Mayor Sitti Hataman, and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong will tackle how good governance in cities can affect the quality of life for all Filipinos.
Join the SGS on October 19 at the De La Salle University in Manila. See the program and list of speakers here. And check this link to see how you can attend.

– Rappler.com

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