Reporma o ayuda? Vico Sotto, Sarah Discaya battle for Pasig’s future

Vico Sotto, the 35-year-old mayor of Pasig running for a third and last term in this year’s elections, is up against 48-year-old Sarah Discaya, an opponent awash with resources out to challenge his six-year hold on a city that’s only just recovering from decades of corrupt patronage politics under previous administrations.

It’s an electoral contest that will pit a desire by Pasigueños for good governance against a clamor for instant, individual benefits.

Even without being in government, Discaya has delivered a seemingly endless stream of benefits to Pasig residents who have lined up at her charity drives and medical missions that began months before she filed for candidacy in October 2024. Her campaign is a novelty whose narrative threatens to upstage Sotto’s record of good governance, as Discaya herself has acknowledged.

Sotto did the unimaginable in 2019 when he unseated the Eusebio dynasty that ruled for 27 years, and then got reelected in 2022, winning over a candidate from an even older political family: the Carunchos.

He has managed to inspire hope among political idealists who continue to aspire for competent leadership and reforms that could, however, take time to produce immediately tangible results.

Yet Sotto’s drive to eradicate corruption, especially in the city government’s procurements, has resulted in billions of pesos in savings that have been channeled into programs, such as expansions in healthcare subsidies and college scholarships, regular cash grants to vulnerable residents, security of tenure for the majority of local government workers, and significantly lower costs of transacting with city hall.

Successful efforts at promoting public health and participatory governance even earned Pasig a special award from the World Health Organization in September 2024.

The scale and consistency of Discaya’s ayuda (aid) offensive has, however, been staggering. On any day over the last several months, a team from her ticket, Kaya This — a play on her surname — has been out somewhere in Pasig, distributing bags of rice, or medicines, or grocery goods, even construction materials. The items often come in packages bearing her brand, delivered by vans and trucks emblazoned with her name and photo.

Discaya signals instant gratification — a necessary proposition if she is to challenge Sotto’s platform of systemic fixes that have already led to improved services. This genie-in-a-bottle pitch may be too good to be true, but it does resonate with the city’s poor, of whom many are impatient for take-home benefits. 

Pasig had the second-highest poverty incidence rate in Metro Manila in 2023 (next to Navotas) — 2.1%, compared to the 1.1% average in the metropolis, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. The national average stood at 15.5%.

Will ayuda lure Pasigueños back to the old patronage system?

Sotto’s good governance

Asked by reporters on March 17 what her reservations were about Sotto, Discaya said, “I think the mayor focused more on good governance. Medyo napabayaan ‘yung health sector, ‘yung ibang sectors like education (The health sector and other sectors like education were somewhat neglected).”

Her reply defined the battle lines between her and Sotto. For the incumbent mayor, it meant enumerating the contents of his “good governance” and making the explicit connection between it and tangible benefits for the people.

Enumeration does take up much of the airtime at the campaign sorties of Sotto and his ticket, Ang Giting ng Pasig, perhaps to make up for lower awareness about what they have delivered. He had, after all, made it intentional not to label every wall, railing, or package with his or any politician’s brand, consistent with his “anti-epal policy” — among the achievements he is proudest of.

“It does have its disadvantages,” he admitted, as it provided his opponents openings for attacks. Ian Sia, a two-time city councilor now running for congressman on Discaya’s slate, for example, pounced on this branding vacuum. 

Sia, who risks disqualification over lewd things he said while campaigning, has been saying that all Sotto did in the past six years was “clean up sewers.”

“It’s OK. I’ll take that. I’ll take the negative with the positive,” Sotto told Rappler in August, when disinformation operations against him were starting to escalate. “For me, it’s more important that we’re pushing things towards the right direction.”

Doing things the right way, whatever the cost, has guided Sotto’s governance of Pasig, and its results earned him in 2021 a US State Department citation as an “anti-corruption champion.”

When he won in 2019 after completing a three-year term as city councilor, Sotto went for the jugular: kickbacks from procurements, euphemistically called “SOP” or standard operating procedure. Sotto said at least 20% of each project’s cost went into this corruption black hole.

He ordered transparency in the procurement process, institutionalized monitoring and expert input, ensured fair biddings, removed some people, and himself vowed never to accept kickbacks. 

Five months in, the city government had already saved P150 million. Since then, savings from the tightened procurement process have amounted to at least P1 billion every year. This helped grow the city’s budget from P10 billion in 2019 to P22.7 billion in 2025 — without raising taxes, Vice Mayor Dodot Jaworski, also running for reelection with Giting, told residents.

The salvaged funds have been channeled largely to various social services that included cash grants to registered senior citizens, solo parents, and soon, persons with disabilities. Students and teachers got tablets, residents got access to free hospitalization and a new “mega dialysis center,” along with new hospital equipment. Cheaper rent at the public market caused one tenant’s bill to drop from P2,500 to P990.

A brand new city hall complex worth P9.6 billion is underway, to replace the current one that has become structurally infirm, presenting a safety hazard.

But perhaps the most symbolic and well-known: every Pasigueño family now receives a yearly Pamaskong Handog (Christmas Gift), a bag of Noche Buena essentials and other food items. 

“The challenge is to let people know and see and feel and remember where we were before, and where we are now, and where we’re going in the future,” Angelu de Leon, running for a second term as city councilor with Giting, told Rappler. 

“Ang layo na ng narating natin bilang isang lungsod (We have come so far as a city),” Sotto declared during their campaign kickoff. 

Ayuda, social media offensive

Sarah Discaya’s construction business, co-owned by her husband, was the top contractor of the Duterte administration. Alongside her copious campaign handouts, her background gives her a veneer of leverage when she promises 553 infrastructure projects, including a hospital, schools, and housing condominiums.

She says she will turn Pasig into a “smart city” where healthcare is free and where there’s a ready answer for every need.

Discaya criticizes Sotto’s administration as inept and out of touch with the impoverished. Her platform includes promises that have, however, already been delivered by him — zero billing for residents at the city’s two public hospitals, in-city housing for informal settlers, and free tricycle franchises. 

Discaya has repeatedly denied rumors that she is related to the Eusebios, and has dismissed speculations that her campaign is a vehicle for the old, supplanted power. 

She was born Cezarah Rowena Cruz to overseas Filipino workers who met in London, where she grew up and studied in her early years. By the time she went to college, she had relocated to Pasig, and became sweethearts with Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya. 

In 2003, the couple started a construction company, now named St. Gerrard Construction General Contractor and Development Corporation, which has been at the center of controversy over various government contracts — the most recent one involving the Commission on Elections (Comelec). 

A company called St. Timothy Construction — said to be affiliated with St. Gerrard — withdrew from a joint venture with Korea’s Miru Systems, the technology provider for the elections. Without naming names, the Comelec found that St. Timothy’s “supposed owners” were planning to run for office, so it gave the company two options: either St. Timothy withdraws from the partnership, or its “supposed owners” are denied candidacy.

By this time, Cezarah Rowena had rebranded to “Ate Sarah St. Gerrard Discaya” — her name on the ballot — and made known her intent to run for Pasig mayor.

Sotto went on the offensive in October 2024, telling the Comelec that “overwhelming evidence” indicates St. Gerrard to be “an alter ego” of St. Timothy. A report also said the two construction companies were owned by Curlee and Sarah Discaya.

Sarah later said that she was “indeed an incorporator” of St. Timothy, but that she divested from the company in 2018 and has had no dealings with it since then.

It was Sotto who provoked the Discayas to run, Curlee said in October 2024, complaining that the incumbent mayor had been harassing the couple and their business. Sotto had indeed called out St. Gerrard for proceeding with construction projects without permits from city hall, and warned the Discayas that it was a criminal offense. Videos of the incident went viral.

Now Curlee is running as the second nominee of the Pinoy AKO Party-list, alongside first nominee Christian Cruz, Sarah’s brother.

Over the past weeks, Sarah and her campaign have hit the headlines for unflattering reasons, including back-to-back sexist blunders by Ian Sia, and a social welfare department probe into a propaganda video involving a person with a mental disability.

Unfazed, Discaya carries on campaigning from neighborhood to neighborhood, where people are more likely to get their information from vlogs than news outlets. A coterie of vloggers covers Discaya’s every campaign move.

Parallel to Discaya’s ayuda ground campaign is a massive social media offensive. An analysis by The Nerve, Rappler’s sister company, of relevant Facebook posts between March 1 and April 8 found that “social media was being exploited to support Discaya, using fake accounts, coordinated posting, and negative campaigning, while support for Sotto appeared to be largely organic.”

Sarah’s and Curlee’s Facebook pages are replete with pictures of their dole-out drives. The Discayas have also started issuing free ID cards to residents, supposedly entitling them to regular ayuda. The ID cards, a precursor to a “one-ID system” that Sarah said she plans to implement if she is elected, reportedly came with a bag of rice for each “beneficiary”.

All this “charity” and publicity have already cost the Discayas at least P1 billion by March 2025, a well-placed source with knowledge of Discaya’s operations told Rappler.

This lavish outpouring of aid, amplified by vloggers on social media, plays to Discaya’s narrative that Sotto’s city hall is inept.

Source of funds?

Discaya often touts the “St. Gerrard Charity Foundation,” her company’s charity arm, as the source of all that aid. She and her husband just want to pay their phenomenal success in business forward, she often tells residents. She said she would donate her salary as mayor to charity, and Curlee would match the amount out of pocket and do the same.

Will the promised infrastructure projects have the Discaya-owned St. Gerrard make money from a Pasig government also led by Discaya, if ever?

“No,” Arnold Argaño, Discaya’s assistant campaign manager, told Rappler in a message. (Rappler’s request for a sitdown interview with Discaya has yet to be granted. She was evasive in a chance interview.)

“If Ate Sarah wins, St. Gerrard will not in any way be part of construction projects. Ate Sarah will use her expertise and experience in ensuring that all infrastructure projects are of premium standards in terms of design, quality, and advantageous to the people of Pasig,” Argaño said.

But what businessman does not expect a return on investment?

“When someone’s spending that much on their campaign, that’s a red flag,” Noel Medina, president of both the think tank Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER), and the civic group, Tambuli ng Mamamayan ng Pasig, told Rappler.

“Walang delicadeza (No sense of propriety),” he added, referring to Discaya. “If you allow people without delicadeza to run your government, that’s a big problem.”

Pasigueños speak

While most surveys put Sotto in the lead over Discaya, her ayuda and media blitz have put Sotto and the rest of Giting on their toes. Could she win Pasigueños over?

People hanging out in Pasig’s Plaza Rizal — a broad quadrangle in the middle of downtown, a busy concourse area where jeepneys drop off and pick up passengers, women attend aerobics classes, and students meet up to rehearse presentations for class — had mixed opinions. 

“Why would you settle for someone you don’t know, when the other one has proven his leadership?” Mike Akim, who has lived all his 41 years in Pasig, said in a mix of English and Filipino. “Besides, we all know she’s with the Eusebios.”

“A lot has improved here in Pasig since Vico took over,” said Gladys Reynoso, 37, Akim’s wife. “Something about Discaya bothers me. She’s spending too much to promote herself. Where does she get all that? What is she going to do if she wins?”

April Recuperto, 21, in college, said she benefitted from the gadgets and stipends Sotto’s administration gave students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of Discaya, she said, “She’s trying to win people over with her giveaways. But I bet that will stop if she wins. Then she will want to recover what she spent.”

One of the women from a Zumba class said, “We could use a new hospital,” adding that “healthcare is important.” Asked if she would vote for Discaya, who promises to build an 11-story hospital, she said she hasn’t made up her mind. 

While few of the residents whom Rappler spoke with expressed interest in Discaya, they all knew of her. Discaya’s efforts have at least paid off with awareness — a feat for any political neophyte.

“This would be Vico’s last term, right?” Akim said. “Then let’s give it to him and just think about Discaya next time, if she tries again.”

Strengthening the system

The battle now is for the longevity of his reforms, Sotto told Rappler in an interview on March 31. At sorties, he urged residents to also vote for the rest of his slate because he wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything by himself, he said, much less if opponents end up dominating the city council.

Does he feel threatened by Discaya’s ayuda campaign? “The truth is, the local government does provide temporary assistance,” Sotto said.

“But the point we’re trying to make is that we can’t stop there. What we do can’t be shortsighted or short-term. We have to think about not just what’s for ourselves or what’s for tomorrow. We need to think about what will last until the next generation of Pasigueños.”

To end patronage politics, Sotto said, the people must learn to understand and trust the system, and not any single politician.

He hopes Giting will get the next three years to galvanize and institutionalize the system of “good governance” they’ve built thus far, so that it can survive any succeeding administration.

“God willing, this will be my last term,” Sotto said. “Kailangan, pagkatapos ng term ko, mas madali nang maging mabuti, mas mahirap nang maging corrupt.” (My goal is, after my term ends, it will be easier to be good, and harder to be corrupt.) – Rappler.com