Binay opts to spend time with Smokey Mountain folk

MANILA, Philippines–Work over politics.

“You can see me working. That’s why I’m here,” said Vice President Jejomar Binay, who chose to spend time in Tondo, Manila, with the poor instead of appearing at the Senate panel inquiring into the alleged overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building II, or parking building.

Even as his spokesman, Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla, told reporters that the Vice President was “prioritizing work over politics,” Binay couldn’t help but crack jokes and later lament the corruption allegations against him and his family by his political foes.

As the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee resumed its hearings, Binay, who sent a letter to the panel to decline its invitation, went to Balut, Tondo, to turn over housing units to former Smoky Mountain residents.

Speaking to resident-beneficiaries of the Paradise Heights housing project of the National Housing Program, Binay said he and his family had been accused of corruption.

“Minsan napag-isip isip tayo. Tama ba tayo ay andito? … Ah ewan (Sometimes I reflect on whether it is right for me to be here …. I don’t know),” said Binay, who had declared early on when he became Vice President in 2010 that he would run for President in 2016.

Binay also said in jest to the crowd against cheering loudly as that might again be used by his foes against him.

To reporters later, the Vice President said that he was concerned that while he was working, there would be allegations being heaped against him.

Up to the Senate

Asked about the possibility that the Senate may cite him and his son, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay, in contempt for refusing to attend the hearing, the Vice President said that this was up to the Senate.

But he said that his son was questioning the Senate’s jurisdiction in investigating the parking building and that senators needed to resolve this first.

Speaking an hour later at the 1st Homestyle Congress at SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, Binay referred to the Senate subcommittee as “an office without judicial power where charges shift based on whim and the rights of the accused take a backseat to political agenda and the acceptance of evidence as it were.”

Baseless accusations

Binay lamented that he and his family had been at the “receiving end of such baseless accusations,” especially on the P2.3-billion Makati City parking building.

“(The Senate investigation) is based solely on what accusers wish to hear rather than a consideration of all facts,” he said.

But he reiterated that he is confident that he would overcome the accusations “in a fair and impartial evaluation.”

“These events may have inflicted great personal injustice on me and my family, but this will not divert me from the work that our citizens expect from their Vice President,” Binay added.

But when asked again by reporters what he thought of the recent developments at the Senate hearing, he declined to comment.

Asked about new allegations that his wife, former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay, allowed the rigging of bid contracts in the city government while she was mayor, the Vice President said it was up to the media to judge the allegations.

Explained enough

Remulla, meanwhile, told reporters that Binay already felt that he had explained the allegations against him in his televised address to the nation last week and that there was no need for him to go to the Senate anymore.

He said the Vice President would answer other allegations against him in the media or may even deliver another televised address.

“But he felt the Senate subcommittee’s credibility has gone down when he was asked to attend the hearing because senators there were no longer looking for the truth but advancing their politics,” Remulla said.

Remulla also reacted to the allegations raised by Ernesto Aspillaga, former councilor and a member of the bids and awards committee, who said that he had received notes from Binay with the name of the bidder who should win.

Remulla noted that Aspillaga had admitted he had no copy of a single note from the hundreds of bids conducted during the period he cited that Binay had allowed the rigging of contracts.

‘Imaginary’

“Obviously, these are imaginary notes. Why did he not reveal the existence of those notes when he was investigated by the Ombudsman for the same bidding he mentioned in his testimony, for which he is now facing several cases in the courts?” he said.

The Cavite governor said Aspillaga was “fabricating his testimony to avail himself of the Witness Protection Program.”

Remulla also dismissed the new documents submitted by former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado to the Senate, saying these were “far from definitive proof as he alleged.”

“It is part of a fishing expedition that violates the constitutional rights of private individuals and validates the position taken by Vice President Binay and Mayor Binay that the hearings are not in aid of legislation but are meant to tarnish the reputation of the Vice President and his family,” Remulla said.

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