23/08/2025
ā The Mayor Who Makes All Corrupt Leaders Look Bad
Some politicians spend years perfecting the art of saying nothing.
Vico Sotto isnāt one of them.
This week, while others might have dodged questions or hidden behind press releases, the Pasig mayor went straight for the jugular.
After President Marcos Jr. revealed ā±100 billion worth of irregularities in flood control contracts, Vico named namesātwo of the top 15 contractors, both owned by the Discaya family, his former political rivals.
And he didnāt just drop a bomb and walk away.
He laid out what he calls the Six Stages of Corruption in government projectsāstarting from rigged bidding, to ghost projects, to SOPs that eat half the budget, all the way to turning stolen public funds into political capital.
Itās the kind of transparency that makes a lot of powerful people very uncomfortable.
This isnāt new for him.
The U.S. State Department once called him an International Anti-Corruption Champion.
The Senate honored him for removing kickbacks in Pasigās contracts, setting up hotlines for complaints, and slashing contract prices to cut bribery.
Even as a councilor, he wrote Pasigās own transparency ordinanceāMetro Manilaās first localized FOI law.
And hereās the part that makes him different: heās not just exposing corruption, heās taking action.
Heās pushing legal cases to collect millions in unpaid taxes from these companies.
Heās promising to send every red flag directly to the President.
And his administrationās track recordābillions saved, salaries raised, workers regularizedāproves itās not just talk.
When MalacaƱang itself tells all mayors to follow Vico Sottoās example, thatās not flattery. Thatās an admission: this one guy is making the rest look bad.
Leaders like him know the danger of speaking up. But they also know silence is the oxygen corruption breathes. And Vico refuses to give it air.
To every leader, from barangay captain to senator:
Stop making excuses. Stop pretending you donāt know whatās going on.
Start doing whatās right, even when it costs you.
Because in a country where corruption has been normalized, Vico Sotto is proof that integrity is still possible.
The only question left isādo you have the guts to follow his lead?
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