Sen. Nancy Binay and Sen. Alan Cayetano. SENATE PRIB PHOTOS
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Nancy Binay on Monday turned emotional when she explained the reason why she filed an ethics complaint against Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.
“I am a parent, so I need to protect my children, and I don’t want them to go back to school where they will be told that their mother has gone crazy just because Sen. Cayetano accused me of being one,” Binay said in Filipino in a press conference.
Binay’s eyes welled, and her voice broke. She said this is not just about her being a senator, but also about her being a mother.
“I feel like crying because I know what children are going through, my children and my nieces and nephews, that time, and I will not let that happen again,” she explained in Filipino.
“Maybe it’s hard to explain it if you have yet to experience being a parent. Because if you’re a parent, it would be more painful if your child gets hurt. That’s what happened to us during that time,” she added.
READ: Nancy Binay files ethics rap vs Alan Cayetano: ‘I can’t let it pass anymore’
Binay earlier admitted to thinking that Cayetano is only using the construction of the new Senate building as an issue to fuel the Makati-Taguig feud, just like what he did in 2015.
Cayetano was among the central figures in the Senate’s probe into the Makati City Hall Parking Building in 2015, a project of Binay’s father, former Vice President Jejomar Binay. Cayeteno claimed that the building was overpriced.
In her 15-page complaint filed before the Senate panel on ethics, Binay said Cayetano committed slander after he repeatedly acted in an “unparliamentary manner and used offensive, derogatory, and improper language” during the public hearing held July 3.
She also claimed that Cayetano committed the following acts:
- Abuse of rights
- Violations of the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability
- Violations of The Magna Carta of Women
- Conduct unbecoming of a public officer and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service
Binay said she is praying that Cayetano be made liable for all “his unparliamentary conduct.”
She said she’s also hoping that appropriate sanctions and penalties be imposed upon Cayetano to “commensurate to the gravity of his offenses.”