A true statesman

People say the ancient art of statesmanship has been lost on our senators and congressmen. Remember how in the past, we used to refer to their places of work as the “hallowed halls” or the “august halls” of Congress?

Yet, kudos to Senator Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto for taking the high road, standing up against all odds, in the face of great opposition among his peers in recent developments. With his no-nonsense presentation of facts and arguments, minus the art of rhetorics, TitoSen has proven he’s a true statesman. 

A recent post summing up unfolding events at the Senate stated: “His words were simple, his position clear. Sotto will be remembered as the solitary conscience that forced the truth to the surface: the CA is not a playground for the greedy. It is a battlefield for the soul of the Senate.”

Lest we forget, Senator Tito Sotto, currently minority floor leader of the Senate, comes with political pedigree. This fact is often glossed over as people are more familiar with him as a TV host on Eat Bulaga and in an earlier lifetime, as an actor in comedy films.  

Senator Sotto, former Senate President, is a grandson of former senator Vicente Y. Sotto, Sr. of Cebu (1877–1950), the main author of the Press Freedom Law.

The older Sotto’s brother, Filemon Y. Sotto, (1872–1966) also served as a senator and was one of those who drafted the 1935 Constitution.

He also filed the  first women’s suffrage bill in the Philippine Assembly in 1907 that eventually led to Filipino women gaining the right to vote in  the 1937 plebiscite.

A post by Vincents on X, former Twitter summed it all up: “And Tito Sotto, non-lawyer, non-nonsense, and patron saint of senatorial sanity, we raise our brows and our glasses.” 

Sotto is the longest-serving Philippine senator in history, being the only one elected for five non-consecutive terms since 1992. He was also Senate President from 2018 to 2022, which was preceded by two terms each as Senate majority leader and Senate minority leader.