Senate probe, tagged persecution, hounds VP sorties

Vice President Jejomar Binay.  INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

SAN MANUEL, Isabela—Five days after visiting typhoon victims in Cagayan and Isabela provinces, Vice President Jejomar Binay returned to his native Isabela on Saturday and Sunday as a Senate panel investigation continues to hover like a dark cloud over his presidential ambition.

The investigation has so far generated testimony alleging corruption on the part of Binay, but it likewise elicited howls of protest from some of the Vice President’s supporters.

One of them, former chair of House committee on human rights Bienvenido Abante, said the Vice President’s right to presumption of innocence was being violated in the Senate.

“Everyone, from the man on the street to the second highest official in the land, is entitled to it,” said Abante, who now chairs the nongovernment organization Bayan Mamamayan Abante Movement (BMAM).

During the Senate panel hearings on the corruption allegations against Binay, witnesses testified that the Vice President, when he was still Makati City mayor, received as much as 13 percent in kickbacks from the city’s infrastructure projects.

“When an allegation is treated as fact despite the absence of proof, there is something very wrong,” BMAM said in a statement.

It said it was not surprising that Congress would not entertain proposals to file an impeachment case against Binay.

Abante said it became apparent that “even Binay’s critics in the House believe the evidence is weak.”

“That in itself speaks volumes about the charges being brought against him (Binay),” Abante said.

Binay appeared to make good on his statement not to let the allegations against him get in the way of his job.

On Sunday, he joined officials and residents of Roxas town for a 2-kilometer walk around the town center. Later, he joined a “boodle fight” and mingled with residents and vendors at the Roxas public market.

He also led the opening of senior citizens’ centers in San Manuel and Echague towns.

Binay met with local leaders and senior citizens in Aurora, Cabatuan, San Mateo, Alicia, and San Isidro towns.

In each town, he distributed wheelchairs and medical equipment through local health centers and government hospitals.

Binay arrived in Isabela on Saturday afternoon aboard a Cebu Pacific flight to Cauayan City and went to the Philippine Army’s 5th Infantry Division headquarters in Gamu town.

He gave a P30,000 check to each of the families of 30 government soldiers who were killed in clashes with communist rebels in the Cordillera, Ilocos and Cagayan Valley regions in the past two years.

At the Isabela provincial capitol in the city of Ilagan, Binay gave land titles to beneficiaries of the National Housing Authority’s community mortgage program.

Binay chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.

In Kalinga province, he was guest at a senior citizens’ program and also distributed land titles.

The Senate investigation, however, continued to hound him in Isabela.

He said he had prepared himself to face every issue that would be thrown his way as he pursued the presidency.

During his visit to Isabela, Binay’s aides distributed shirts printed with the phrases, “Kay Binay, Gaganda ang Buhay” and “Tatak Binay, Serbisyong Tunay.” Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon