Sotto wants to retire, not looking forward to 2022

SENATE President Vicente Sotto III said he is not interested in seeking another public office but only seeking retirement from politics when his second full term as senator ends next year.

In a radio interview last March 13, 2021, Sotto said his “number one priority” is “to retire” from politics, as he also dismissed the rumor going around that he would be running as vice president to Sen. Grace Poe who, reports said, is eyeing another try at the presidency after losing to Pres. Duterte in the 2016 presidential contest.

Sotto said he and Poe never talked about their political plans for next year and the only subject they have been discussing thus far are the pending bills in the Upper Chamber.

“Wala po kaming pinag-uusapang ganoon (political plans) at saka malayong-malayo sa kaisipan namin sa ngayon yun, kaya nga medyo nung isang gabi na-turn off ako, dahil ang problema, pandemya, ang problema, inflation, ang problema napakarami, patayan, yung utter disregard of law,” Sotto said.

Sotto said he is also becoming “tired” from his job as a full-time senior politician since he was first elected senator in 1992 and then being re-elected for another full term in 1998.

After a brief retirement, Sotto was again elected senator in 2010 and then again in 2016, with his fourth full term as senator in ending next year.

Prior to this, Sotto also served as Quezon City vice mayor from 1988 to 1992, when he decided to try his luck in national politics during the national election that year and succeeded.

Aside from retirement, Sotto said he might just throw his support to another candidate, depending if the candidate is worth supporting. “Kung wala namang kakuwenta-kuwenta, huwag na lang.”

Sotto also took his own jab at those in Malacañang who are pushing for Pres. Duterte to run as vice president in next year’s polls, thus echoing the same opposition to the idea expressed by Sen. Manny Pacquiao a day before his radio interview.

“… tapos biglang maririnig ko pulitika ang paguusapan? Susmaryosep!

Hindi pa tapos yung term ng Presidente (Duterte), gusto nilang patakbuhin ulit ng ibang pwesto naman.

“Bakit hindi asikasuhin yung problema natin, ganoon ang nasa isip ko, kaya sabi ko, Diyos ko, kawawa naman tayo,” Sotto said.

A day before, March 12, 2021, Pacquiao, during a press conference called by the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), also criticized a resolution by his partymates calling on Pres. Duterte to run as the party’s vice-presidential candidate next year.

Pres. Duterte was the party’s standard bearer in 2016 where Pacquiao now sits as president.

Aside from criticizing political talks within the party during this period of the pandemic, Pacquiao also disowned the resolution, stressing he did not sanction or authorize its circulation.