Binay wife withdraws request to travel

Former Makati City Mayor Elenita Binay FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines— The wife of Vice President Jejomar Binay on Thursday withdrew from the Sandiganbayan her request to travel to Hawaii.

In an ambush interview after the hearing, Mrs. Elenita Binay’s lawyer Juan Carlos Mendoza said they withdrew the motion as the Sandiganbayan said Mrs. Binay should be conditionally arraigned before it takes jurisdiction on the motion.

Mendoza said a conditional arraignment would prejudice their moves to seek a remedy before the Supreme Court.

He said they plan to file charges of grave abuse of discretion before the high court if the Office of the Ombudsman junks their motion for reconsideration in reviving Binay’s case.

“Her right to travel is important but even more important is her right to elevate the matter to the Supreme Court,” Mendoza said in Filipino at the sidelines of the hearing.

“If we are conditionally arraigned today, our remedy before the Supreme Court might be foreclosed,” he added.

But the division, chaired by Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, said the conditional arraignment would not prejudice Binay’s motion for reconsideration before the Ombudsman and their moves before the high court.

Mendoza said this is where they disagree with the anti-graft court.

“We have a different position with respect to the court. That’s why we withdrew our motion to travel,” Mendoza said.

Mrs. Binay was present in the hearing but she refused interviews by the media.

Mrs. Binay faces charges of graft and malversation for the purchase of allegedly overpriced beds of the Ospital ng Makati when she was mayor from 1998 to 2001.

The case was dismissed in 2011 for lack of evidence but it was later revived by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Lawyers of Binay threatened to sue the Ombudsman’s Special Prosecutor Office over the revival of the case despite lack of new evidence.

The Sandiganbayan on May 20 issued a hold departure order against Mrs. Binay over the newly revived case against her.

The anti-graft’s fourth and fifth division both allowed Mrs. Binay for her to travel to Hawaii from June 6 to June 27.

The court said Mrs. Binay need not post a P90,000 travel bond because she has not yet withdrawn the bond for a previous trip.

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