Binay to be invited anew to Senate hearings

MANILA, Philippines—The Senate’s Blue Ribbon subcommittee is inviting Vice President Jejomar Binay anew to its hearings on the allegedly overpriced Makati carpark building to respond to serious charges of corruption, and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, the body’s chair, said Saturday he hoped Binay would accept this time.

The subcommittee would send out the invitation to Binay on Monday for its Oct. 30 hearing to give him plenty of time to decide. It will hold an earlier hearing on Oct. 22, Pimentel said.

“This is his second chance. Maybe he has a change of heart, or a change of mind because the charges against him have piled up. Maybe he wants to answer these,’’ Pimentel said in a telephone interview.

So far, the vice president has been adamant about skipping the inquiry that he said was a forum to vilify him ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

He declined the first invitation to respond to former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado’s charges that he ordered the rigging of bidding for infrastructure projects and pocketed kickbacks from such

Vice President Jejomar Binay. CATHY MIRANDA/INQUIRER.net

projects.

On the day of the hearing, Binay opted to spend the day with the poor in Tondo, Manila, by turning over housing units to former residents of a garbage dump.

Mercado has since come out with more accusations, including Binay’s alleged ownership of a P1.2-billion, 350-hectare farm complex in Rosario, Batangas, in a possible case of ill-gotten wealth.

Binay’s camp said he only leased nine hectares of the farm.

Pimentel said the subcommittee would respect Binay’s decision should he decline the second invitation.

“No hard feelings, no negative implications, nothing,’’ he said.

The subcommittee was drafting a report on whether the carpark was overpriced, and would release it “as soon as we’re ready,’’ Pimentel said.

“Everything said and all papers submitted not in connection with the parking building will still be relevant,’’ he added.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who called for the hearing on the carpark, said he intended to expand the inquiry to cover possible anomalies in five other buildings in the city: the Makati Science Building, Nursing Building, City Hall I, Ospital ng Makati and Friendship Suites.

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