Tito Sotto gets BOPK formal endorsement in Eat Bulaga-like show in Cebu City

By: Dennis Gutierrez - 3 years ago

BOPK grand rally in Cebu City Saturday night

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Vice presidential candidate and Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III has reunited again with his “kababayans” in a grand rally in Cebu City where he got the formal endorsement of the leading political party Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK).

The Sotto campaign team invited the Cebuanos to attend the rally at the Cebu City Sports Center on Saturday to listen to the Senate President’s governance reform plans once elected as the second highest official of the land in the May 9 elections.

“I have come again to this beloved city to meet my fellow Cebuanos. I traced my roots here. My lola used to sell fish at the Carbon Public Market and my lolo used to be a kargador in the pier area. We have relatives who are still living here in Cebu City,” Sotto said.

Sotto’s grandfather and namesake, Vicente Yap Sotto, served as a senator from 1946 to 1950 and the House of Representatives from 1922 to 1925, representing Cebu’s 2nd district.

The older Sotto was the main author of the Republic Act No. 53, the Press Freedom Law also known as the Sotto Law.

Apart from being playwright, director, and producer, he is regarded as the father of Cebuano language and letters, and published the first Cebuano newspaper, Ang Suga in 1900.

Republic Act No. 114581, the enhancement of the Sotto Law, has been signed by President Rodrigo Duterte. It would allow not only journalists in print media but also in broadcast and online media to protect their sources.

Sotto is also the second Senate President who is a Cebuano, next to Marcelo Fernan. Fernan served as leader of the 24-member Senate in July 27, 1998 to June 28, 1999, after Neptali Gonzales and succeeded by Blas Ople.

“I bring the pride and honor of the Cebuanos in carrying the baton of Senate leadership with a stellar accomplishments. During the 18th Congress, I have been hailed as having a 100 percent attendance in the Senate. The Cebuano brand of public service, like that of the late Senate President Marcelo Fernan, should reverberate in all levels of governance,” Sotto said.

In his continued support to the Cebuanos, Senate President Sotto placed the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center as one of the priority recipients of government annual budget, to ensure that Cebuanos get premier health care services from its regional hospital.

Sotto also authored and relentlessly followed up for the implementation of a program for the Cebu Normal University, in partnership with the VSMMC, to offer a College of Medicine as a way to operationalize government effort to providing one doctor per barangay and to make primary health care accessible especially in rural or underserved area, as mandated under Section 25.3.e ad f of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act.

The grand rally on Saturday afternoon had the Eat Bulaga artists as special guests.

On Sunday morning , the group held a Zumba event with Mrs. Helen Gamboa Sotto and other Eat Bulaga Stars in the same venue.