It’s a good thing that the Senate hearings on our abysmal “floodgate” are held in the morning and not on TV prime time. If they were on the prime TV viewing hours, the ratings of the likes of ABS-CBN’s Batang Quiapo and GMA 7’s Sang’re might be affected.

The “tarayan” and “supalpalan” (fights) among senators on the faces of moneyed contractors, budget-tinkering, cash-handling government officials are proving to be more riveting than the scripted dialogue in our nightly soap operas.

We dare say though that the unscripted scenes at the Senate hearings would be more engaging to watch if the personalities would turn up in colorful outfits in varying fashionable designs. Most of those involved as inquisitors or as accused are in dull gray (for some, though, we can say “dumb” gray). 

There seems to be a dress code for the proceedings and it must be the only “law” and rule of conduct that the greedy contractors, officials and engineers of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) have some conscience to heed. Some, though, still have the nerve to lie on national TV, get caught for it by some senators and eventually get thrown into the Senate jail for a day or two. They are cited for contempt.

It is heartwarming to note that the newly elected senate president was seasoned in Pinoy showbiz as a band member, recording company executive, comedian and TV host: Vicente “Tito” Sotto III. Now 77 years old, his political career began in 1988 as vice mayor of Quezon City (where son Gian Carlo is the incumbent vice mayor to Joy Belmonte from the media-owning family). 

The Senate President speaks English with a very Pinoy accent but that is okay. The Pinoy multitude easily understands whatever he is communicating because of that accent. 

Sotto replaced a politician married to actor-fashion icon Heart Evangelista: Chiz Escudero. It is actually Sotto’s second time as Senate president. The first time was in May 2018, all the way to June 2022. He replaced Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III.

Tito is the grandson of former senator Vicente Y. Sotto I and the nephew of former senator Filemon Y. Sotto. Vicente Sotto I was Vicente Yap Sotto (VYS), a prominent Filipino politician, journalist and lawyer. He was an influential figure in Philippine history until his death in 1950.

Born in Cebu City in 1877, VYS was a Philippine senator from 1946 until 1950. He also served as a representative for Cebu’s 2nd district from 1922 to 1925.

He was well-known for authoring the Press Freedom Law (Republic Act No. 53), which protects journalists from being compelled to reveal their sources. As a journalist, he was known as the “Father of Cebuano Language and Letters.” He established the first Cebuano newspaper, Ang Suga, in 1900. 

The father of the showbiz Sotto siblings Val, Tito, Mary and Vic was Marcelino Antonio “Nonong” Ojeda Sotto Sr., a son of VYS, who married in 1940 Dr. Herminia Castello, a women’s rights advocate.

The first Sotto to join politics was actually Filemon Y. Sotto, elder brother of VYS. Filemon (1872–1966) was a lawyer, legislator and newspaper publisher from Cebu. He was elected senator for two terms, serving from 1916  all  the way to 1922. He represented the 10th senatorial district, which covered Cebu. He was a delegate to the 1934 Constitutional Convention, where he was appointed chairman of the “Seven Wise Men” committee. This committee was instrumental in drafting the 1935 Constitution.

Before his time in the Senate, Filemon served as a representative for Cebu’s 3rd District in the Philippine Assembly from 1907 to 1916. While in the assembly, he sponsored the first bill advocating for women’s suffrage.

His public service career began in his home province of Cebu, where he was a municipal councilor and later municipal vice president from 1903 to 1905. He also served as a provincial fiscal for Occidental Negros and assistant fiscal for Cebu.

As a journalist, Filemon founded and published several periodicals, including El Imperial, Ang Kaluwasan, La Opinion and La Revolucion. 

He earned a law degree from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and passed the bar examinations in 1905. The Sotto showbiz brothers were schooled at Colegio de San Juan de Letran, also a Dominican order-founded institution during the Hispanic era in the Philippines like UST.

So there, the Pinoy showbiz-nurtured Senate President Tito Sotto is not an upstart in politics and public service. He is married to former movie queen Helen Gamboa. As far as it is known, they have always been happy together with their four daughters and one son. No one has ever been reported or rumored to be Tito Sotto’s lovechild.