Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who is running for vice president as part of a ticket that describes itself as neither pro-opposition or anti-administration, said in an interview that the Philippines was in a crisis, and compared the country to a patient in an intensive care unit (ICU).

“Yes, nasa ICU tayo. Pandemic, utang, Mandanas ruling na hindi pa sigurado kung papaano namin gagawin, kung papaano namin i-e-elaborate ngayon dito sa budget, the P13-trillion debt, the problem on peace and order, the problem on corruption, and many more. Nasa ICU tayo,” Sotto said in an interview Wednesday, November 10, on Rappler’s election program On the Campaign Trail.

(Yes, we’re in the ICU. The pandemic, the debt, the Mandanas ruling which we still aren’t certain how to handle, how to elaborate in the budget, the P13-trillion debt, the problem on peace and order, the problem on corruption, and many more. We are in the ICU.)

The leader of a crucial voting bloc in the Senate since 2016, the start of his fourth term in the chamber, and the Senate president since 2018, Sotto has been criticized as an “enabler” of the Duterte administration, especially in its early years. The criticism extends to his running mate, Senator Panfilo Lacson.

In an interview on the program On the Campaign Trail, which this writer hosts, he called the criticism “silly.” 

Asked if he agreed with this writer’s opening spiel – that the Philippines is undergoing what scholars call “democratic decay,” that we are in fact facing a crisis – he answered in this way: “Yes, I do agree with what you say, but let me put it this way. If the Philippines is a patient, we are in the ICU.”

Then he added an election pitch: “Now, if you are in the ICU, who will you choose for a doctor? ‘Yung bagong graduate, o ‘yung may expertise na? Ganoon ‘yung thinking namin.” (The new graduate, or the one with expertise? That’s our thinking.)

Sotto has led the Senate in criticizing Health Secretary Francisco Duque III’s handling of the pandemic, and questioning the work of the Inter-Agency Task Force, but has stopped short of directly calling out the chief executive.

The Supreme Court’s Mandanas ruling, set to finally take effect in 2022, affirms that local government units should share in all collections of national taxes, not just internally generated revenues. This will drastically increase the LGUs’ share in the national budget but will also tax the resources of the national government.

A report from the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department outlined some of the difficult work ahead: “Agency budgets during the transition period (2022-2024) will have to reflect changes following the devolution of certain programs/services, the shift in NG role from rowing to steering, and the movement and rationalization of personnel.”

Sotto’s “P13-trillion” was a reference to the official government estimate of the national government’s total outstanding debt by the end of 2022, or six months after the end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term. The Bureau of Treasury estimates that the country’s debt stock will rise to an all-time high of P13.41 trillion, with about 70% of the debt, or P9.4 trillion, owed to domestic lenders. The “P13 trillion” is a doubling of the total outstanding debt inherited by President Duterte; in the last full year of the preceding administration, total debt stood at P6.6 trillion.

Sotto commended the administration for doing creditable work on the enforcement aspect of the campaign against illegal drugs. “To some extent, they have been successful.” But he said it had failed in the other three aspects, of prosecution (“There is much to be desired”), prevention, and rehabilitation (the administration has done nothing, “none at all”). He was responding to a question about the seemingly selective PDEA raid on that Davao de Oro resort, which involved a close aide of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte. “Look at what’s happening. Drugs are still proliferating.” 

He added: “You cannot solve the problem of illegal drugs if you cannot solve the problem of drug abuse. Because the day we stop buying is the day they will stop selling.”

He has only recently called out the corruption scandals in the administration, but has supported the blue ribbon committee’s inquiry into the Pharmally controversy, which involves potential pandemic profiteering; he has signed an arrest warrant and signed off on the Senate filing a case at the Supreme Court to contest President Duterte’s gag order on Cabinet officials.

Sotto said he and Lacson had entered into consultations with Senator Manny Pacquiao and Vice President Leni Robredo, to discuss the possibility of an alliance, of forming a “united group.”  But he clarified their political position. “We’re not anti-administration, but we’re not pro-opposition either. We’re pro-Filipino.” – Rappler.com

John Nery is a columnist and editorial consultant in Rappler, and host of On the Campaign Trail, a weekly election program.