Two Pasig City government employees are facing preventive suspension after being linked to solicitation and fixing activities, Mayor Vico Sotto announced Monday, signaling that his administration’s anti-corruption drive was now reaching deeper into the city bureaucracy.
One of the suspended workers, from the City Treasurer’s Department, reportedly admitted to acting as a fixer for clients. The other, from the City Social Welfare and Development Office, was allegedly caught soliciting from a contractor tied to the office.
Sotto drew attention to the culture that allowed such behavior to persist — particularly the practice of asking contractors for birthday money or contributions to office parties, which he said had long been treated as harmless or routine in government settings.
“This is something that may have become a habit in government, like it’s nothing serious, that it’s not bribery anyway, or the contract was already awarded, so maybe it’s OK to ask for birthday money or Christmas party contributions,” he said.
The mayor noted that Pasig had already moved to prohibit contractors from making contributions to City Hall events when he first took office in 2019.
Both employees remain under preventive suspension while administrative proceedings are underway. Sotto said hearings would still need to take place before any determination on heavier sanctions — including possible dismissal — could be made.
He also confirmed that personnel from the city’s legal department were under separate investigation, though he withheld specifics given that those proceedings were still active.
At the village level, Sotto said certain barangay officials were already before the Pasig City Council’s Blue Ribbon Committee, with preventive suspensions likewise imposed to protect the integrity of ongoing inquiries. Among the concerns raised were alleged irregularities in the handling of community development funds, including premature releases and reports of public money being used for personal purposes.
“It cannot continue that public funds are handled this way for life,” Sotto said.
The mayor acknowledged the personal difficulty of pursuing cases against individuals he may know, but said looking away from violations would undermine the reforms his administration had been building since his first term — efforts that began with procurement systems before gradually extending toward local governance structures.
He called on Pasig residents to keep reporting fund-related irregularities, while also giving credit to officials who carry out their responsibilities properly.
