Vicente Castelo Sotto III, professionally known as Tito Sotto, is a Filipino politician, entertainer and athlete who served as Senate President from 2018 to 2022.
48 Facts About Tito Sotto
2.
Tito Sotto served a total of four terms in the Senate: 1992 to 2004 and 2010 to 2022, tying the record for the longest-serving Senator with Lorenzo Tanada and Franklin Drilon.
3.
Tito Sotto became the Vice Mayor of Quezon City from 1988 to 1992, and later unsuccessfully ran for vice president in the 2022 elections as Panfilo Lacson's running mate.
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Tito Sotto is colloquially dubbed as "Tito Sen" by audience viewers.
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Tito Sotto notably won a bronze medal in the 1978 Asian Games.
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Tito Sotto studied at Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Intramuros, Manila for his elementary, high school, and college education, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in English.
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Tito Sotto's career started in the 1960s when he joined the combo Tilt Down Men; one of its members was his brother Val.
8.
Tito Sotto wrote the music for "Balatkayo" by Anthony Castelo which was Castelo's hit.
9.
Tito Sotto was vice mayor of Quezon City from 1988 to 1992.
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Tito Sotto served as Assistant Majority Floor Leader, was a member of the Commission on Appointments, and served as chairman on several senate committees.
11.
Tito Sotto was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as a member of the board of directors and acting chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board on July 4,2008, succeeding Anselmo Avenido whose term was expiring that day.
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Tito Sotto ran under the Nationalist People's Coalition party but campaigned alone because he was not included on any ticket.
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In July 2013, at the end of the 15th congress, Tito Sotto resigned as the Majority Leader following the resignation of Juan Ponce Enrile, his staunch political mentor, as Senate President.
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Tito Sotto was chosen by his colleagues in the minority to be the Deputy Floor Leader, second-in-command to Enrile who became the Minority Leader.
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In July 2014, following Enrile's arrest on charges of plunder relating to the pork barrel scam, Tito Sotto became the acting Minority Floor Leader.
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In 2013, Tito Sotto filed a bill that would mandate all government and non-government employees to receive a 14th month of annual salary.
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On July 25,2016, during the opening of the 17th Congress, Tito Sotto was again elected as Majority Leader.
18.
Tito Sotto was elected as chairman of the Senate committee on rules and the Senate committee on ethics and privileges.
19.
Tito Sotto has expressed his support for the revival of the death penalty, but only for "high level drug trafficking".
20.
The Gabriela Women's Party demanded for a public apology, claiming that Tito Sotto "went out of bounds" insulting solo parents and insinuating malice at Taguiwalo.
21.
Filipino netizens criticized Tito Sotto, who became a trending topic on Twitter that day.
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Some social media users even reminded him that his daughter, Ciara Tito Sotto, is a single mother.
23.
Tito Sotto reasoned that perhaps people were just "overly sensitive" and did not "understand the joke".
24.
Taguiwalo thanked Tito Sotto for supporting her confirmation as DSWD secretary.
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The said groups claimed that the aforementioned apology was insincere and that Tito Sotto normalized patriarchal views and trivialized the abandonment of responsibility over children.
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The complaint was filed with the Senate committee on ethics and privileges, of which Tito Sotto is the chairman.
27.
Tito Sotto welcomed the complaint and declared his intention to go on leave from his committee as soon as he receives the complaint officially.
28.
At the start of the 18th Congress in 2019, Tito Sotto regained his position as the 3rd highest ranking official in the Philippine government after he was re-elected as its Senate President.
29.
Tito Sotto, who served as Majority Floor Leader in his years way back in the Senate secured the support of his co-senators especially those in the majority.
30.
On March 23,2021, Tito Sotto stated that he and fellow Senator Panfilo Lacson were being persuaded to form a tandem, but the two senior legislators were still reluctant on deciding if they will file a candidacy together or individually, and when he was asked in an interview if he would run for higher office in the coming elections since he is term-limited and barred from running a third consecutive term as Senator, Tito Sotto said that he is still undecided.
31.
On May 2021, Tito Sotto revealed his contemplation on running for vice president in 2022 during a television interview on the ABS-CBN News Channel.
32.
Later on June 7, Tito Sotto declared that if Panfilo Lacson decides to run for president in the 2022 election, he will "definitely" run as vice president in tandem with Lacson.
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Tito Sotto has been described as a conservative by the local media because of his positions regarding social issues, owing to his Roman Catholic background.
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Tito Sotto has vocally expressed his opposition against measures on reproductive health and women's rights.
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Tito Sotto had been pushing for the restoration of the death penalty since he took office as a senator in 1992.
36.
Tito Sotto changed his stance on the penalty in 2021 when he entered the vice-presidential race in the upcoming 2022 presidential election, believing life imprisonment to be a better alternative.
37.
On May 29,2018, Tito Sotto made a request to the online news site Inquirer.
38.
In 2012, Tito Sotto was accused of plagiarizing several passages in a speech opposing the Reproductive Health Bill in the Philippine Senate.
39.
Several news agencies reported that Tito Sotto had taken the passages from a 2011 blog entry by Sarah Pope.
40.
Tito Sotto asserted that he was quoting Natasha Campbell-McBride, who was referenced in the blog post.
41.
Tito Sotto remarked that she did not intend to sue.
42.
On November 9,2012, Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of late American senator Robert F Kennedy and president of the Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, wrote a public letter to Senator Sotto accusing him of flagrantly and deceptively plagiarizing the Robert F Kennedy's 1966 Day of Affirmation speech in his remarks to the Philippine Senate last September 5,2012.
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Tito Sotto has since issued an apology to the Kennedy family, but tenaciously refused to admit that he committed plagiarism in his speech.
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Tito Sotto reasoned that the allegedly plagiarized passage was obtained from a text message sent by a Christian leader, which he then translated into Filipino as he found it fit for his speech without knowing that the words were Kennedy's.
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Tito Sotto argued that he never claimed the ideas and words as his own, therefore he did not plagiarize.
46.
Tito Sotto was one of the two senators who have inserted provision on libel under the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 or Anti-Cybercrime Law.
47.
Tito Sotto is married to Helen Gamboa, a beauty queen, actress, and singer.
48.
Tito Sotto has enlisted in the military as a reservist in the Philippine Army since 2013, ranked as Lieutenant Colonel.