FINDING ANSWERS
Last week’s Kapihan sa Manila Hotel featured the highly accomplished former Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III, popularly known as Tito Sen, my close friend for almost four decades now, ever since he run and won as vice-mayor of Quezon City in the late ‘80s.
At that time, he was merely intending to run as councilor in QC’s third district. But I saw in him so much potential and was quite sure of his winnability to an elective post, so I convinced him to aim higher which he did and, as they say, the rest is history.
As Tito Sen became the country’s third most powerful official in the presidential line of succession during his last senatorial term that ended in 2022, he had tied the record for the longest-serving senator with Franklin Drilon and Lorenzo Tañada, having served four terms, from 1992 to 2004 and 2010 to 2022.
But it’s not only in politics that Tito Sen is popular, he’s also a famous actor/comedian, sportsman, and prolific songwriter.
He has done many movies as part of the well-known trio, Tito, Vic, and Joey, which made the noontime TV variety show Eat Bulaga an icon in Philippine entertainment.
In sports, he’s a world-class golfer and a multi-awarded bowler who represented the Philippines at the AMF Bowling World Cup in Bolgota, Columbia in 1978, and in Sydney, Australia in 1984.
As renowned songwriter and composer, he’s credited with many OPM songs including “Magkaisa,” one of three iconic anthems of the 1986 People Power Revolution, and “Dakiling Lahi” which formed the official songs of the 1998 Philippine Centennial Celebration, and also one of my favorites included in the CD of songs I sang myself.
As public servant, Tito Sen was chairman in 2008 to 2009 of the Dangerous Drugs Board which I also chaired concurrently in 2002 when I was DILG secretary. He was founding president of the Vice Mayors League of the Philippines. A staunch advocate against illegal drugs, he founded the Quezon City Anti-Drug Abuse Council and is a hall of famer of the US-based International Narcotics Enforcement Officers Association.
But it was in the Philippine Senate that Tito Sen really shined after he topped the 1992 senatorial race in which I also won a second term as senator. Before peaking at the Senate presidency, he had two stints each as Senate Majority Leader and Senate Minority Leader, and has chaired many Senate committees.
As a highly accomplished senator, he authored and sponsored around 250 bills that have become laws of the land, including the much-needed Bayanihan 1 and 2 legislation that benefited millions of Filipinos at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the Kapihan, we discussed a wide range of topics like the medical use of marijuana, the House divorce bill transmitted to the Senate, population control and his pro-life stance.
He said legislation on marijuana must focus on medical cannabis, on cannabis oil if indeed it is proven to really benefit those who need it medically. But he warned that the House bill contained some provisions he found to be dangerous, such as the planting, cultivation and storage of marijuana, which he said will be prone to abuse.
Tito Sen said he is against divorce and called the House measure transmitted to the Senate as an approved bill “that was never really passed” because it lacked the required number of votes in relation to the quorum.
He said that instead of divorce, he was in favor of legislation that would make annulment “uncostly and untedious.” He said that the annulment process ought to be made easier through an administrative process, instead of judicial process, similar to the law on adoption.
As to population control, Tito Sen agreed with me that efforts to reduce or stop an expanding population will be counter-productive in the long run, as proven in many countries like China, Japan, and Singapore where there have been efforts to drastically stop population growth. There are now very few takers of the incentives provided by government to get more women pregnant.
“God has a process of life and death; we should not interfere in God’s process,” Tito Sen warned as he dismissed the idea of overpopulation as a myth.
As a staunch pro-life advocate, he said that when he was senator, he was meticulous in reviewing the national budget every year and he saw to it that millions of pesos intended for “commodities” that were actually abortifacient were removed and transferred to other expenditures.
With his vast experience in the Senate on varied issues such as the economy, education, agriculture and many other pressing concerns, there’s no doubt Tito Sen is an invaluable public servant. He can do a lot more if he decides to become senator again.
Listening to him at the Kapihan, I knew his heart is at the right place. I felt the likes of Tito Sen is what our country needs. As we reminisced on his achievements and what inspired him to do Dakilang Lahi and Magkaisa, he simply said: “We should never give up trying to achieve the dreams for our country.” ([email protected])