Vice presidential aspirant Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Sunday said a vice president can help run the country even without holding any Cabinet post.

At the Commission on Elections-organized debates at the Sofitel Plaza, Sotto said the second-highest seat is not a “spare tire”, or elected to just assume the presidency in case of the death, disability or resignation of the incumbent president.

“Una sa lahat, hindi naman talaga spare tire talaga ang pangalawang pangulo kung alam mo ang gagawin. Kahit hindi ka bigyan ng posisyon. With the clout of the Office of the Vice President, marami ka magagawa (First of all, the Vice President is not really a spare tire if you know what to do, even if you are not given any Cabinet post. With the clout of the Office of the Vice President, you can do a lot),” he said, in response to a question on reforming the Constitution and giving the vice president post more responsibilities.

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Under Article 7, Section 3 of the Constitution, the vice president may be appointed as a member of the Cabinet.

In previous interviews, Sotto said he was against amending the 1987 Constitution, saying he does not see the immediate need for it.

In the same debate, Sotto said he does not favor tandem voting or selecting a ticket rather than individual voting for candidates running as president and vice president, saying it defeats the purpose of check and balance.

“In the Philippines, (there are) 64 million voters, we will allow the presidential candidate na siya ang magbubuo ng (select the) Vice President? 64 million Filipinos ‘yun po dapat ang bumoto kung sino ang gusto niyang maging leader ng bansa, ‘di ba (64 million Filipinos must be allowed to cast their vote on who they want to be the country’s leaders),” Sotto said.

Internal cleansing

Sotto also pushed for internal cleansing to address the issue of corruption in the government.

Despite having anti-corruption bodies like the Office of the Ombudsman and Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, Sotto said the government is too large for a single body or anti-corruption agency to address the problem of graft and corruption.

“What we need is internal cleansing, we must lead by example,” he said.

He cited Senator Ping Lacson who addressed “kotong” (extorting money) when the latter was chief of the Philippine National Police.

“Anong (what’s the) technique? Internal cleansing and lead by example. Kahit anong offer ng kahit ano pati reward hindi tinatanggap (Whatever offer, or reward is not accepted). When you lead by example everybody else follows,” Sotto said.

Sotto said human intervention should also be eliminated to help reduce corruption.

“But then again, if we do not digitalize, without internal cleansing, ay tagilid (nothing will happen),” he said.

He said Congress has allotted a lot of funds for the computerization of Bureau of Customs, but “digitalization” has not yet materialized.

“Bakit? Gusto nila may human intervention pag may human intervention, andun ang taga, yun ang kasagutan sa karamihan dyan. (Why? They want human intervention, when there is human intervention, there is bribery, that’s the answer we got from most of them),” Sotto said. (PNA)