UNFULFILLED?. Featured image above shows erstwhile village councilmen Bobby Hapin (right) and Ram Cruz spill the beans on Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto’s ‘broken promises’ in a press conference about his ‘5 Big Agenda’. (Photo: SDN)
Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-JDQ
- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech and Digital News
CALLE PRECIOUSA RESTAURANT, Pasig City (SDN) — It pays to keep one’s promises, especially if you are somebody that people, or at least your allies, look up to.
The law of nature is that good deeds beget good karma; broken promises get illwill.
Looks like this is what’s happening in this local government unit (LGU) as gleaned from today’s press conference in this seafood restaurant.
And it happens that it’s about Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto, son of a celebrity couple in the Philippine movie industry.
It appeared that when the young Sotto started his political career in 2019, the first time he won as this LGU’s top chief executive in Eastern Metro Manila, he had two allies who have stuck with him for better or for worse — former Barangay Bambang councilman Ram Cruz and erstwhile Barangay Manggahan councilman Bobby Hapin.
More than 20 reporters and bloggers covered the press conference of the mayor’s two disgruntled allies as they spilled the beans on the young Sotto’s alleged “broken promises”. Mind you, the broken promises they spilled were not just about them, but for all Pasigueños, especially those who are at the “laylayan” (edge, meaning the poor people) of society.
“Zero billing for Pasig residents not true”
The mayor is running for his third term as expected with every elected government official; leaving one’s comfortable office, the trappings of power, the privileges that come with, and the resources at hand, it seems, are not easy to abandon. In politics, the longer you are entrenched, the more you want to stay.
Nonetheless, “abandonment” has been added to the vocabulary of Cruz and Hapin. They detailed the reasons why they have abandoned the son of the celebrity duo.
Based on their revelations, Sotto may have to watch some of his allies closely because, as Cruz and Hapin revealed, they are only the first. The duo said there are still others who are planning to do likewise and they are talking behind Sotto’s back.
In the media event, the two disgruntled former Sotto allies discussed their reasons for their action, focusing on the mayor’s supposed “5 Big Agenda” such as:
- 1. Health
- 2. Housing
- 3. Education
- 4. Anti-Corruption
- 5. Consultation
Cruz and Hapin took turns hitting the mayor for what they said drove them to be disgruntled are Sotto’s alleged “napakong pangako” when he first run for mayor in 2019.
Cruz said that if health for all Pasigueños’ is the foremost in his “5 Big Agenda”, the number one problem in Pasig’s Health Centers are medicines and medical services.
“It is being boasted by Mayor Vico about ‘zero billing’ at Pasig City General Hospital if a Pasigueño is hospitalized. That is not true,” Cruz says emphatically.
While a patient is being treated, they have to buy their own medicines, they are not free, he lamented.
Cruz and Hapin: Sotto should let engineers speak about condition of Pasig City Hall
“Mayor, I wish you fuflilled your promises,” says the former “kagawad” (village councilman).
“It’s because aside from lack of supply of medicines in the hospital, you have to go to another medical center for your laboratory, so you still have to use your own money.” Aside from being a former village councilman, Cruz was an erstwhile acting village chief.
Hapin pointed out that Sotto’s second promise is housing. “Up to now there is zero house constructed, not even a single post,” he claims.
Sotto, he added, has posted on social media many houses standing, but it is only (in paper). “Just one term remains for him but the (housing) remains just ‘drawing’ as is being talked about.” (Filipinos used the word “drawing lang” to refer to fake news.)
Hapin added that on the mayor’s education agenda, nearby cities there students are already equipped with and using their free school supplies and uniforms. “But in Pasig, they are still in the stage of getting shoe size. Meanwhile, the students are about to go on vacation.”
On Sotto’s anti-corruption drive, Sotto is a champion advocate. “But if his people are involved, he just ask them to resign if they are not from Pasig,” Hapin and Cruz say.
They also said while the mayor is complaining about trolls bashing him, he can’t explain the discovered troll army of Philip Camposano, his chief political adviser. Hapin and Cruz revealed Camposano was also asked to resign recently.
Cruz said he boasted having sacrificed many things to support Sotto in 2019 against the Eusebio family but nothing happened for him.
The disgruntled duo hastened to add they have nothing personal against the mayor, but they have to raise their voices and make the Pasigueños know about what’s truly happening in the administration of Sotto.
Hapin and Cruz said they will stand by what they said, it is now the time to let the issues out, referring to what they claimed was Sotto’s unfulfilled vows relating to his “5 Big Agenda”.
They also hit the mayor’s planned Pasig City Hall Campus, multi-building and multi-used complex worth Php9.6 billion.
The duo suggested the mayor should not be the only one speaking about the present City Hall as being “unsafe”.
Sotto should let engineers and other experts speak about it, they added.
Both are running for councilor. They insisted they are not joining a group running against the Pasig administration.(♡)