‘Dear Abby’: Makati Mayor Binay has enough stuff for a book

‘MAKATIZEN’ NO. 1 | Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay meets with Inquirer officers, editors, and reporters at the paper’s new office on Jan. 25, 2024. (Photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — After being a three-term mayor, how about a first-time book author — one who compiles the funny, the nasty, the absurd, the bizarre?

Makati City Mayor Abby Binay believes she already has plenty of such material. That is, in the form of letters and text messages she has received through the years from constituents. They range from requests (simple or out-of-this world), complaints, and unsolicited advice, to below-the-belt insults and schoolyard challenges to a fistfight.

If former President Joseph Estrada managed to publish a joke book of one-liners and “anecdotes” with mostly his mangled English as punchline, maybe she can have her own debut volume, too.

“Erap had his ‘Eraptions’; I haven’t thought of a title yet (for mine),” Binay said during a freewheeling, roundtable interview with Inquirer editors and reporters on Jan. 25.

“Dear Abby!” some of the editors suggested.

Request for condo

For such a book, consider these for teasers:

One “Makatizen” (City Hall’s moniker for residents), for example, barefacedly asked her to find a way, using the powers of the Office of the Mayor, for that person to be a cast member-competitor in the “Pinoy Big Brother” show.

Another letter sender wrote: “Mayor, please give me a condo (unit at) SMDC.”

“Very specific!’’ Binay said of the requestor, who was quite easy to remember because yellow pad was used.

Another person asked for money to buy outfits for pet dogs that were supposedly joining a contest abroad.

From a male Makatizen comes a more earnest plea for help: his girlfriend needs a hefty sum quick; she had just embezzled P2 million.

“Ay, it seems you can just pick up P2 million from the ground these days,” the mayor said with a chuckle.

‘Bring your parents’

But some messages were far from benign, if not outright menacing.

In 2016, on a certain weekday she did not suspend classes despite the bad weather, a student—who appeared to be from an exclusive school—texted her: “Mayor, see you later out in the field.” It was a classic dare to settle campus grudges.

“What does this kid want!? A fistfight?” Binay said.

Another teenager texted her an insult using the F-word. But what she found more shocking was not the message itself, but the fact that in his profile photo the young man was dressed as an altar boy.

‘MAKATIZEN’ NO. 1 | Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay meets with Inquirer officers, editors, and reporters at the paper’s new office on Jan. 25, 2024. (Photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Clash with Taguig

And yes, she would still reply to such messages—mainly to ask the senders to see her personally in her office and “bring your parents.”

Still, the majority of the texts and letters were pleas for financial or medical assistance. “Depressing,” she said.

But throughout her tenure, Binay said, she has managed to put in place a system that eliminates the need for mayoral intercession for such requests and the delivery of basic services, including the selection of scholarship recipients.

“The same way when they go to Osmak (Ospital ng Makati), as long as you have a card and you comply with the requirements, even if you didn’t vote for me, it’s free … You don’t have to ask me to get it.”

The 48-year-old local chief executive — whose family has been dominating Makati politics for more than three decades — has been in the news of late mainly in connection with her city’s border dispute with neighboring Taguig.

The Supreme Court late last year resolved the decades-old issue in favor of Taguig, giving it jurisdiction over a cluster of villages — the so-called Embo barangays — that had long been part of Makati.

But the word war continued between the two local governments over the transition and other legal issues, especially regarding the public schools and health centers in those villages.

Waiting for ‘sign’

Amid the acrimony, Binay was recently quoted in media reports as saying that she was considering running for mayor of Taguig.

Later, she said she was still waiting for a “sign” before deciding on her plans, having reached her three-term limit as mayor. One thing she already declared last week, though, was her choice of successor: her husband, incumbent Makati 1st District Rep. Luis Campos.

Speaking of plans and futures, she said someone from Caloocan City recently sent her a three-page handwritten letter, one with a most curious prediction.

The letter, she recalled, spoke of “a prophecy” that Binay would be “the third female president of the Philippines.”

“The letter said: ‘Look for the burning bush as the sign. You will bring the Israelites to the Promised Land.’”

—RUSSEL LORETO