Binay fails to show up at Cabinet performance commitment session

Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines—Vice President Jejomar Binay was a no-show at the Cabinet Performance Pledge session called by President Benigno Aquino last Thursday, but Malacañang saw nothing wrong with it.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said Saturday that other Cabinet members were also unable to attend the session, adding those officials should not be singled out for their absence.

Aquino asked his Cabinet officials to sign personal “performance commitment contracts” pledging to achieve their departments’ programs within the last 20 months of his administration.

The commitment contracts, practiced by the Singaporean and Malaysian governments, have the Cabinet members submitting accomplishment reports to the President after a given period of time.

“What is important is we understand the context of the event. All agencies, all Cabinet-level departments are part of this process to commit under the concept of performance-based budgeting. The specific event of signing the contracts shows the personal commitment of the secretaries summarizing their commitment,” Coloma said in Filipino on state-run radio.

Coloma did not say who else among the Cabinet officials were unable to attend the session, explaining that he did not do an “attendance check.”

Coloma also said that President Aquino himself, in recent interviews, had praised Binay for his work as head of the government’s housing agency.

Coloma said there should not be any speculation about the Vice President’s absence from Thursday’s event.

At a foreign correspondents’ forum on Wednesday, President Aquino disclosed that Binay asked for his advice on how to handle the ongoing Senate investigation into his alleged ill-gotten wealth.

The President said he did not offer to help the Vice President.

When they had a private meeting last week, however, the President said the two of them reminisced about how their friendship began during the 1986 snap election, where Binay was an ally of his mother, President Corazon Aquino, and remained loyal through the Edsa People Power Revolution and the military coup attempts against her administration.

Aquino also said that Binay told him that they would remain friends despite differences in “politics and style.”

Binay’s supporters have blamed the President’s allies for what they call smear campaign against the Vice President to derail his plans to run for the presidency in 2016.

Aquino’s allies have denied the allegations.