Toppling the Eusebio dynasty: The rise of Vico Sotto

Introduction

The politics in the Philippines has always been dominated by the elites or the rich family.
Political dynasties are not new in the Philippines where multiple cities, provinces and town are
ruled by prominent families and wealthy families. The Spanish colonialism laid down the
foundation for political dynasty as when Spaniard colonized the Philippines, there are thousand
of communities all over the archipelago which are ruled by the datus. The Spaniards ask for the
help of the datus to subjugate the people of the Philippines. The Spaniards provided datus a
position in their government in exchange for their barangay to be under the Spanish centralized
government. The datus was given properties in prominent locations to keep them happy and they
were given the status of principalia. The principalia grows stronger, influential and wealthy due to
the benefits they gain from their positions and the position of principalia is hereditary so it can
pass down to family members. This practice of principalia laid down the foundations of political
dynasty in the Philippines (Limos, 2019). This is also the case for Pasig City which is dominated
by the Eusebio for 27 years until the arrival of Vico Sotto. Vicente Eusebio started his term on
1992 defeating the former mayor Mario S. Raymundo and he easily won his reelection for mayor
in 1995 and 1998. Vicente Eusebio was replaced by his wife in the mayoral election of 2001,
Soledad Eusebio won the election. In the mayoral race of 2004, Vicente Eusebio returned as a
mayoral candidate but not without a hurdle as he was against the former congressman Henry
Lanot, Vicente Eusebio won by a small margin. Vicente Eusebio was replaced by his son Robert
Eusebio which almost lost in the 2007 mayoral election against former congressman Robert
Jaworski. Robert Eusebio easily won his reelection in 2010. In the 2013 mayoral race, Robert
Eusebio was replaced by his wife Maribel Eusebio and she won the election. For the 2016 mayoral
race, Robert Eusebio run again for mayor and the race was not even close favoring Robert
Eusebio. In the 2019 mayoral race, Robert Eusebio was against Vico Sotto. Vico Sotto was behind
heavily against Robert Eusebio in the survey polls in the early campaign (Arcilla, 2019). Publicus
survey shows that Sotto has only 8 percent preference ratings compared to Robert Eusebio’s 75
percent rating which shows the chance of Sotto to win is slim (Sabillo, 2019). Vico Sotto defied
the odds and defeated Robert Eusebio in the mayoral race which ended the reign of the Eusebio
in Pasig City despite having only three years of experience as a councilor in Pasig city.

Statement of the Problem

 1. How did Vico Sotto, a newbie in politics defeated the dynasty of the Eusebio?

Analysis:

The Eusebio family started their dynasty in the city of Pasig in 1992. Asako, Iida,
Matsubayashi, and Ueka (2012) defines political dynasty in their study of political dynasty in Japan
as family members who occupied the same position in the past. The political dynasty of the
Eusebio fitted the description of Asako, lida, Matsubayashi and Ueka. The Eusebio family is a
prosperous family which has the power to help and give favor to their constituents for their vote.
This create a patron-client system where the Eusebio family can provide the needs of Pasiguenos
and for their vote. Lande (1965) described a patron-client system as a dyadic relationship where
both the patron and client have heavy reliance on each other. The Eusebio family have
entrenched their dynasty in the Pasig city hall as the Eusebio has never been beaten in the local
election.

The emergence of Vico Sotto in politics can be explained by Machado’s emergence of

professional politician. Machado (1974) defines professional politician as who treats politics as a
career rather than an avocation and leadership is the main qualification. Vico Sotto is a graduate
of Political Science in Ateneo de Manila University and took master’s degree in public
management in Ateneo de Manila University (Sabillo, 2019). Aksyon Demokratiko is the political
party of Vico Sotto, Aksyon Demokratiko recruits professional politicians just like Vico Sotto in
order to attract local voters for their national political competition. These relationship between
Aksyon Demokratiko and Vico Sotto will help secure Pasig voters for the national political
competition in the next future. Vico Sotto cannot be considered as “new men”. Machado defines
“new men” as these men comes from humble backgrounds like fishing, farming and business
family and Vico Sotto comes from a prominent family as his parents is both celebrities and the
Sotto family name has a history in the politics.

For twenty-seven years, the Eusebio dynasty has a tight control of the city and has been
in power. There is no visible presence of police force in the roads and major highways as many
policemen serves as the bodyguards of the officials of Pasig city, this led numerous traffic
violations committed by motorist. Pasig city becomes unorganized which causes horrible traffic
jams due to taxicab drivers unloading everywhere and jeepneys not using their headlights at
nights in order to save fuel. The Eusebio family becomes complacent as they have a hard grip of
power in Pasig City (Avecilla, 2016). There is an atmosphere of fear during the tenure of Vico
Sotto as a councilor and there is a great disparity of wealth in Pasig city. There was an
investigation against the Eusebio due to the discovery of shabu tiangge behind the city hall
(Carpio, 2019). The complacency and the controversies of the Eusebio dynasty is one of the
reasons that helps Vico Sotto to win the Pasig city mayoral election.

Vico Sotto cannot match the resources and the machineries of the Eusebio so he focuses
on the people’s desire for change due to the failures and frustrations of the dynasty of the Eusebio
who controlled the city. Vico Sotto’s plan is to end the Pasig city culture of fear and vengeance
where city hall officials get fired for helping political opponents and revoking a business permit
due to a comment in the facebook post of a political rival. Vico Sotto becomes a mayoral candidate
that is synonymous for change in Pasig city (Carpio, 2019).

Vico Sotto is a populist figure for the people of Pasig city who do not feel the services and
projects of the Eusebio. A populist is defined as strong and charismatic leader who has a
connection with the masses and represent the will of the masses against the corrupt elites (Mudde
& Kaltwasser, 2017). Vico Sotto is seen as a beacon of change for Pasig city where the Eusebio
ruled for decades. Nicole Curato’s politics of hope helps describe on how Vico Sotto won the
mayoral election in Pasig city. Curato (2016) defines politics of hope as political actions that
focuses on dealing with the fears and aspiration of the people in the future. The political action
provides a voice for the people that creates a hope for the people that they can control their realm
of reality than relying in the hands of the elites. Sotto’s platform is seen by Pasig city voters as a
betterment of the city’s future and Sotto’s stance for change capture the heart of the Pasig city
voters which helps him rise to power.

Conclusion:

Political dynasty is not new in the Philippines, a lot of cities and provinces have political
dynasty ruling them. Political dynasty does not really equate to bad governance but when a
political dynasty becomes complacent due to being in power too long, it becomes a problem as it
could lead to bad services which could left the people disappointed towards the government. The
disappointed towards the government can lead to the clamor for change which led to the rise of
populist leader who becomes the voice for the common people. There is a lot of negative
perceptions about a populist leader in which a populist leader is a threat of democracy due to its
tendency to be an authoritarian regime. This is not the case for all populist leaders, but this
negative perception creates a notion that being a populist leader is a risk. In Pasig city, the rise
of a populist leader like Vico Sotto is due to the disappointment towards the government of
Eusebio and seeing Vico Sotto as a leader for the common people. There is no really a permanent
thing in the world and this also applies in politics where change is always being pursue when the
people had enough.

Bibliography
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