Embedding a culture of integrity

The Asian Development Bank, which is headquartered in the Philippines, last week celebrated the 2025 International Anti-Corruption Day with the theme "Embedding a culture of integrity.

- MARIANNE GO

During its Dec. 11 celebration, the ADB invited no less than Pasig City Mayor Victor "Vico" Sotto to share his thoughts about how he has been embedding a culture of integrity in his local community of Pasig.

It was my first time to actually see and hear the young Sotto scion. His presence at ADB's celebration of Anti-Corruption Day resulted in a blockbuster standing room crowd at the ADB's main auditorium, which in previous celebrations, according to John Versantvoort, head of the ADB's Office of Anti-corruption and Integrity (OAI), usually managed to fill only a small meeting room.

One would have thought that the ADB staffers were waiting to see a rockstar or idol as they collectively roared a greeting upon the entry of the 36-year-old mayor of Pasig, simultaneously raising their cellphones to get a photo of the popular local government official.

As he prepared to deliver his speech, someone in the crowd even shouted out the common fan pledge "I love you," and the now public savvy Mayor Vico responding with "I love you too!" - much to the roaring approval of the ADB crowd.

Mayor Vico could be considered the anti-corruption idol, with his appeal coming from his principled stance against corruption and his more than five years of trying to institutionalize anti-corruption practices in the Pasig City LGU.

Mayor Vico showed that he is a realist and admits that there is no silver bullet to eradicate corruption, even acknowledging that after years of trying to instill integrity, all such hard and principled work could just as easily be overturned by another politician.

Corruption, he admitted, "has been deeply ingrained in our culture, in our institutions. Standard Operating Procedure or SOP, the very term implies that it's automatic. It has been institutionalized."