By Perfecto T. Raymundo, Jr.
PASIG CITY — Two former long-time politician allies of Mayor Vico Sotto on Friday (Nov. 15) divulged what they knew about the alleged “empty promises” committed by the Pasig Mayor.
In a press conference in Calle Preciousa Restaurant, both former City Councilors Ram Cruz and Bobby Hapin said that they were dismayed and they have already turned their back on Mayor Vico Sotto, adding that it should already be expected that their “turning back” is just the beginning of the others who would also disassociate themselves from Mayor Sotto.
Both Hapin and Crus are running for Councilor as Independent in the May 12, 2025 national and local elections.
Hapin clarified that he was bumped by a taxi as they both did not see the path as the taxi abruptly made a “U-turn”. His knee was injured. The mirror of the motorcycle was broken. Mayor Vico then just lowered the mirror of his vehicle but did not approach him because of a scheduled political campaign.
Hapin was with Vico Sotto in the political campaign when Sotto ran for mayor in 2019.
He noted that the people see how the “incumbents” are doing their job and if Mayor Sotto has done nothing wrong, he has nothing to worry about, but if he has done something wrong, that will be the time for him to worry about.
Hapin said that there’s no such thing as “perfect administration”, but himself saw that Sotto has to add more or perform better about his political promises.
He added that they are running as Independent because they wanted that the “flood of hope” for Pasiguenos should be realized and sustained.
He cited the 5 Big Agenda of Mayor Sotto, including health, which is really very lacking.
From P17 billion to PHP22 billion budget of the Pasig City Hall, Hapin said, it’s really very inefficient when it comes to delivery of services to Pasiguenos.
Hapin is calling for the construction of an extension of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasig in the sense that there’s an available “big fund”, but there’s much more to be done in so far as education is concerned.
“Those who are really are in the ‘below the poverty line’ in Pasig, should be taken into consideration by the City Government,” Hapin said.
“Our voices are for the needs of the students such that it’s about school vacation time, but the assistance for them (students) will still be in the payroll,” he added.
“Ang social media ang nagpasikat sa kanya (Sotto). Maaaring di nya ako kapartido. Ang kasikatan nya (Sotto) ay pumalaot na. Ang tinalo nya ay 27 years sa pwesto,” Hapin said.
“Ang mga politico ay sumisikat sila kasi iniinterview sila ng media. Arkila sa troll page raw ay PHP2 million. Ang renta raw sa Bridgetown as temporary city hall office ay milyung piso raw. Totoo ba?’ he added.
“Publicly and national, talagang kilala sya (Sotto). Pero dapat sagutin nya ang mga issue kagaya ng political leader na ‘troll’ na nasa City Hall na pinagresign na,” Hapin said.
“Dapat talagang umaagos pa ang pag-asa sa Pasig pero dapat sagutin ang mga issue na binabato sa City Hall,” he added.
“Iba yung 2019. Iba yung 2022. Choice nya (Sotto) yon. Dinala ako noong 2019. Pero hindi na ko isinama noong 2022 na sa tingin ko ay ginagamit lang ako. Manalo, matalo, aanuhin ko pa yon. Magpasya po kayo Pasig. Alam nyo kung ano ang nangyayari,” Hapin said.
“Ang siyudad ng Pasig ay hindi basta-basta. Dapat may programa. Volunteers kami ni Konsehal Ram, lalo na ngayong may mga kalamidad,” he added.
“Dapat eksperto ang magpapaliwanag sa ‘unsafe’ na old City Hall. May PHP9.6 bilyon para sa new City Hall, pero walang pera sa Bagong Hospital,” Hapin said.
“Dapat pag-aralan din ng Pasig na makakatulong ba talaga ku ng ikaw ay kuripot o nagtitipid. Sa laki ng pondo ng Pasig, pati oxygen kulang. Namatay ang isang babaeng kilala ko nang ilipat sa RMC,” he added.
“Dapat ang kailanga po dito ay proseso na kumbinsido ang Pasigueno na dapat alisin o tibagin na ito. Hindi kami papayag na hindi man lang kami mabigyan ng boses sa Pasig,” Hapin said.
“Huwag kang mangamba kung talagang tumindig ka sa Pasig dahil tao ang magpapasya,” he added.
“Ayaw na sa pamahalaan ang kaibigan kong dati ring Konsehal ng Pasig dahil ‘discontented’ na siya,” Hapin said.
Hapin has filed his certificate of candidacy for Councilor of Pasig in the May 12, 2025 elections, but Mayor Vico never say a word or asked about his condition.
Sports, sports developmental skills for health, sports health, another public hospital for Pasig, free medicines, infrastructures wherein all the basketball court should be made as wooden, solo parents and PWDs livelihood opportunities, trainings and seminars for disasters and more awareness and orientation on calamities or disasters are the political platform of Hapin.
Cruz and Hapin said that their “dismay” was prompted by the “broken promises” of Sotto when he ran for mayor in the 2019 local elections.
Cruz has been supporting Sotto when he ran for Councilor and until Sotto ran for Mayor. Cruz stressed that such period of time was sufficient enough for Sotto to make good his political promises, but to no avail.
He said that they will tell all about what really is happening in Pasig,
Cruz added that they knew about what really has been happening in Pasig such as the case of “trolls” such that in 2019, the control of troll pages is in the hands of the current political leader of the City Hall.
He said that it means that the City Hall was not doing what it should have been doing for Pasiguenos.
Cruz noted that it’s only “good in the papers”, but the implementation of the programs of the City Government was “very inefficient”.
“It’s up to the Pasiguenos, if we will be disclosing ‘issues’ about the Pasig City Government,” Cruz said.
“Libreng gamot, libreng hospital. Universal health Care, zero balance. Pero habang nasa hospital, bumili ka nyon, bumili ka nyan. Nasan ang zero balance dyan,” he added.
“Ilan na ba ang nabigyan ng tahanan. Mahihirapan sumagot. Edukasyon, Uunlad lang ang bayan, kung ang mamamayan ay edukado. Matalino lang ba ang may karapatang mag-aral. Marami dyan ay magkakasya nalang na makatapos ng high school,” Cruz said.
“Pinapatawag nila ang PWD (person with disability). Nasan ang konsultasyon. Meron po bang nakasuhan. Nasaan po ang mga pangako – 5-point agenda,” he added.
“Hindi ako nag-apply sa City Hall. Walang masamang tinapay doon. Mahabang proseso. Anim na taon. Hindi naming makita ang plano kahit noong nakakaisang taon na, wala kaming nakitang konkretong plano,” Cruz said.
“Wala kaming nakitang konkretong plano sa unang taon ni Mayor Sotto,” he added.
“Mas marami ang hindi nakatanggap ng SAP 1 o SAP 2 kaysa sa nakatanggap. Pagdating sa pera o ayuda, magulo. Ang prayoridad nila ay gibain ang City Hall – PHP9.6 bilyon,” Cruz said.
“Talagang nagbabangga-bangga na ang mga sinasabi ni Mayor Vico sa Youtube. Mukhang nabudol na talaga,” he added.
“Dapat eksperto ang magsasabi na ‘unsafe’ ang old City Hall. Dapart eksperto nag magsasabing mag-evacuate na kayo at umalis na kayo. Talagang planado ang PHP9.6-bilyon City Hall,” Cruz said.
“Ang ipinagmamalaki hanggang 100 taon ang new Pasig City Hall pero ang National Building Code sinasabing hanggang 50 years lang ang lifespan ng isang building. Another budol,” he added.
“Sana man lang tatlo sa five-point agenda ay tinupad. Lahat paninindigan namin. Trabaho lang. Walang personalan,” Cruz said.
Good governance, transparency and health are among the platform of government of Cruz.
They said that health was supposed to be included in the “Big 5 Agenda” of Mayor Sotto, however, the lack of medicines and medical service are the primary problem in the health centers, and the second “promise” of Sotto was housing.
But until now, they said, not even a single post has been erected. In the nearby cities, they added, the students are already using the free school supplies and uniform.
However, in Pasig, they said, the students were just only in the process of measuring their individual size for the shoes and here comes the school vacation.
According to Cruz and Hapin, Sotto is admittedly the “champion” when it comes to “anti-corruption”, but if his staff, who are not Pasiguenos, were involved in allegations of anomaly, they were just asked to just resign.
They said that Mayor Sotto made it appear that he was a victim of trolls, but he cannot explain the recently discovered alleged “troll army” of Philip Camposano, the chief political adviser of Sotto, who was recently just asked to resign as well.
They added that the “dismay” of Sotto’s supporters was also because of the mayor who does not know how to mingle with the ordinary Pasigueños.
However, they clarified that their “turning back” does not necessarily mean that they will coalesce with the political rival of Sotto in the sense that they will remain as independent candidates for city councilor.
