The city chief of Pasig reminded Filipinos to be vigilant as the election period grows near after correcting a quote card created by a regional newspaper on social media.
Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto on Wednesday clarified that he was not talking about the presidential elections as Panay News previously published on its Facebook page.
The publication on June 6 released a quote card attributed to the city chief.
“Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto expresses his thoughts on President Rodrigo Duterte’s endorsement of his daughter, current Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio, to run for the presidency in the 2022 election,” the caption reads.
It then included some of Sotto’s words from his interview on “Quarantined with Howie Severino” in May 2020, where he said that he would “strongly discourage” his family from succeeding him as the city chief.
“Hindi lang dahil hindi magandang tingnan but ang puso ko para sa Pasig, puso namin ng team namin dito, magkaroon ng iba pang leaders,” the first-time mayor said in the interview.
“Hindi lang naman isang tao ‘yung magaling eh. Hindi lang isang pamilya ang magaling. Let’s find those young leaders. Let’s find those next generation leaders who will be better than me, who will be better than the leaders that we’ve already had here in Pasig,” Sotto added.
He said that he has no intention to stay in politics for a long time and added that a true mark of being a good leader is the ability to pass the leadership to someone else.
“Succession is a defining [quality of] a good leader, so kung magaling kang leader, mapapasa mo sa susunod na leader. Ibig sabihin may continuity na hindi ‘yong anak mo lang o ano — ibig sabihin may mga bagong leader rin and that’s my vision for Pasig… kung sino yung pinakamagling, pinakamahusay at pinakatapat, ‘yun ‘yung manalo dito sa Pasig,” Sotto shared.
The regional newspaper on Sunday published some of the mayor’s words in the 2020 interview and reported that it was his “thoughts” on Duterte’s supposed endorsement of his eldest daughter to run for president.
The quote card has since gone viral, catching Sotto’s attention.
GMA News also created a quote card out of Sotto’s interview last year but it did not indicate that it was about the upcoming elections.
“Maaaring totoo ang quote, pero last year pa at HINDI presidential elections ang topic!!” Sotto said on his Facebook page.
“Hindi naman ito malaking isyu. Ngunit pino-post ko lang ito para sabihin: Laganap talaga ang fake news at dadami pa ito habang lumalapit eleksyon. Maging mapanuri. Hindi porket gusto (o ayaw) mo ang quote ay totoo na,” he added.
“Dito sa Pasig, WORK MODE lang tayo. ‘Wag nating intidihin ang maiingay na boses na mahilig gumawa ng intriga. Sa lungsod pa lang, ang dami na nating kailangan gawin; hindi ngayon ang panahon para makikisawsaw sa national politics,” Sotto further said.
The upcoming national elections will usher in a new president who will succeed President Rodrigo Duterte.
It will be held on May 2022 while voter registration ends on Sept. 30 of this year.
Meanwhile, the regional newspaper that published the wrong quote card has corrected its post on Sunday by attributing Sotto’s words to political dynasties in the country.
“In a 2020 statement, Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto expresses his thoughts on the prevalence of Political Dynasties in the Philippines, and how good leaders would rather pass the mantle of responsibility than keep it,” its updated caption reads.