Sotto breaks silence over new city hall complex issue

Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto has addressed recent reports questioning the proposed P9.6-billion budget for a new city hall complex.

In a letter sent to DAILY TRIBUNE, the mayor alleged that this reporter — along with Pasig-based online news website BRABO News — were biased when they quoted an open letter from a local contractor dated 23 July 2024 questioning the budget for the construction of the complex.

In his letter, Sotto stressed that the media should have asked his side of the story.

“To my understanding, it is an accepted standard of journalistic practice and ethics to seek the side of the party to whom negative allegations are imputed before publishing a story,” said Sotto in the letter.

The Pasig mayor also said that the computations of costing per square meter in the article are both “inaccurate and misleading.”

“This is not surprising considering that your source was a party with a clear conflict of interest. It seems that the allegations in their press release were not fact-checked,” said the mayor.

He also explained that as a project under the “design and build” modality of procurement, the detailed cost estimates for the new Pasig City Hall is currently being finalized before the contract signing.

“This project will be implemented with utmost transparency. The detailed cost estimates will be published and made available to the general public upon finalization and contract signing,” the local chief executive said.

The previous story had shown that a certain Curlee Discaya, president of St. Gerrard Construction General Contractor and Development Corporation, urged Sotto to cut the project cost by two-thirds and explained that the estimated cost of P209,197 per square meter for the 46,000-square-meter complex was “excessive.”

DAILY TRIBUNE and BRABO News said that they had sought Sotto’s reaction through the city’s public information office on 25 July — the day the story was published.

On Thursday afternoon, 8 August, the city public information office relayed to DAILY TRIBUNE Sotto’s reaction via their Viber group assailing this reporter and BRABO News reporter Nep Castillo.

DAILY TRIBUNE is looking deeply into the mayor’s complaint and the circumstances surrounding the publication of the original story.