Junjun Binay: Just finishing what pa started–and building his own

BINAY

Seeking a second term in Monday’s elections, Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. said he had spent the last three years continuing “the projects that my father started, but at the same time started new ones.”

This was how the 36-year-old son of Vice President Jejomar Binay sought to dispel perceptions that he had never stepped out of his old man’s shadow.

The young Binay said some of the major projects initiated by his father saw completion under his watch, like the Makati Parking Building near City Hall and the transfer of the old Makati Science High School to a 10-story building on Kalayaan Avenue in Barangay Cembo.

New hospital

When he took over in 2010, among the projects he launched was the construction of a tertiary hospital on Malugay Street in Barangay Bel-Air, which is about 50-percent complete as of this month. Expected to be finished in 2015, the new eight-story hospital will have a 300-bed capacity, he said.

Binay also counted as one of his accomplishments the 12-percent increase in the revenue collection of the city government in 2012, which raised P12 billion that year.

“There was considerable increase in the number of establishments in Makati (that year),” Binay explained in an Inquirer interview.

However, he said, the mere presence of big companies in the city cannot be the sole reason behind the city government’s brimming coffers. “It’s not fair to say that if not for the Ayalas, Makati would not be progressive like this. No. If the conditions here are not favorable, who would choose to locate their businesses in the city?” the mayor said.

Binay also responded to criticism that he had not been as “visible” as his father was during the latter’s administration. Jejomar served as mayor  from 1986 (initially as officer in charge appointed after the Edsa Revolution) to 1998, and again from 2001 to 2010.

Internal survey

“If that’s true, how come I am always leading in our surveys?” he said, referring to an “internal” poll which he said his camp had been commissioning.

In the May 13 race, Binay has found a lone opponent in Renato Bondal, a former chair of Barangay Palanan who lost in his two earlier bids to become a city councilor. In the tight contest of 2010, Junjun defeated two rivals: then Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado and Erwin Genuino.

On Friday night, the Binay camp staged another show of force as hundreds of supporters gathered for his miting de avance at the City Hall quadrangle despite the light drizzle.

Speaking to reporters, the mayor said the “dynasty” issue repeatedly being raised against his family is again up “for the people to decide.”

“We would not have won the elections during those years if the people of Makati didn’t like our governance,” he said.

Twenty-seven years, to be exact. And Monday’s balloting results could add three more.