Roxas to Binay: Don’t blame me if Cebuanos don’t like you
Vice President Jejomar Binay (left) and Former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
DON’T point your fingers at me.
Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas on Tuesday gave this warning to Vice President Jejomar Binay, as he denied any hand in the booing incident during the Sinulog festival in Cebu City over the weekend.
“Remember that for every finger you point, three fingers are pointed back at you,” Roxas said at the weekly “Bulong Pulungan” forum at Sofitel in Pasay City.
Roxas said Binay ought to remember his own refusal to respond to charges of graft and corruption lodged at his door.
LP’s fault?
“If people become angry at you, how can that be LP’s fault?” he asked, in reaction to the claim of Binay spokesperson Joey Salgado that the boos came from the “LP contingent” at the Sinulog.
The Vice President was booed by the crowd after he was introduced by suspended Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama at the formal opening of the Sinulog grand parade at the Cebu City Sports Center on Sunday.
Binay only managed to make a brief greeting to the 10,000 people in attendance before exiting the stage.
Defending himself from insinuations it was staged by LP, Roxas pointed out that “the Mayor of Cebu is Binay’s ally, and Sinulog is an occasion organized by Cebu City government.”
‘Be careful’
On Monday, LP coalition spokesperson and Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez warned Binay that this would probably not be the last boos he would get.
“I think it’s just the start. If I were in his camp, I would be careful of which events to attend,” he told a forum at the House of Representatives.
Gutierrez said it was clear the booing came from “ordinary people,” and not the LP delegation. Roxas was not in Cebu at the time.
He said the boos were a manifestation of the people’s pent-up anger at Binay for his continued refusal to answer the charges of graft and corruption against him.
But Gutierrez acknowledged that Binay had regained his dominance at the poll surveys amid the graft charges against him.
Binay at top
Based on the latest Social Weather Stations survey, Binay emerged on top of the Jan. 8 to 10 survey with 31 percent, followed by Sen. Grace Poe with 24 percent and Roxas with 21 percent.
“He rose in the surveys admittedly. That’s clearly the result of people forgetting the charges against Binay in the national conversation. He got out of the conversation and I think he took advantage of that,” he said of Binay.
Gutierrez said the Vice President’s TV ads might also have something to do with his resurgent performance in the opinion polls. “Every time I switch on the TV I see his face. Obviously that has an effect.”
“But what happened in Cebu is proof that Filipinos have not forgotten,” he said.
