APO mobilizes 100,000 members to support ‘Brod Jojo’
LUCENA CITY, Philippines—The Alpha Phi Omega fraternity has been mobilizing its more than 100,000 members here and abroad to support their beleaguered brother, Vice President Jejomar Binay, in this critical chapter of his political career.
Mel Adriano, a Manila-based businessman and former APO national president, said Saturday he was in the United States to accept declarations of support for Binay from more than 30 APO-Philippines alumni associations in North America.
“We support VP Jojo Binay not only because he is an APO brother but because he is the most qualified and has the track record of getting things done,” Adriano said in an interview on Facebook.
Binay has been a member of APO since his college days in the University of the Philippines Diliman in the 1960s.
APO claims to have more than 360 collegiate chapters in the Philippines.
Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
Binay never fails to credit the fraternity’s support for his victory in the 2010 vice presidential election.
Adriano said all APO members across the country, college residents and alumni members, most of them professionals, have reaffirmed their commitment to support Binay.
“They [are] active on social media, spreading the truth about the false allegations and lies at the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee,” Adriano said.
Adriano was referring to a Senate blue ribbon subcommittee inquiry into allegations of corruption against Binay, centering on the alleged overpricing of the P2.28-billion Makati City Hall Building II, which was constructed when he was the city’s mayor.
Former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, the principal witness in the inquiry, has accused Binay of taking 13 percent of the cost of all municipal infrastructure projects in kickbacks and concealing assets, including an 8,877-square-meter property in Comembo village in Makati and a 350-hectare farm in Rosario town, Batangas province.
The disclosures at the inquiry have hurt Binay’s standing in early presidential opinion polls, although he remains on top with a voter preference rating of 31 percent in the latest Social Weather Stations survey.
Adriano said APO members’ support for Binay was “voluntary” and “from the heart.”
“They are not paid like other groups,” he said.
Most APO members interviewed by the Inquirer said the Senate inquiry was politically motivated, intended to tarnish Binay and take him out of 2016 presidential race.
They said several polls had shown that Binay had a comfortable lead over his putative rivals, particularly the Liberal Party’s presumptive standard-bearer, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.
Binay has transformed his political coalition United Nationalist Alliance, the vehicle he used to launch his vice-presidential campaign in 2010, into a political party in preparation for a presidential run in 2016.
In the Southern Tagalog and Bicol regions, APO members have also been mobilized to counter the “black propaganda” against Binay, Joselito Joy Merjudio, chairman of APO-Southern Luzon, told the Inquirer.
Merjudio, who is based in Pagbilao, Quezon, said some APO lawyers have volunteered to go radio and television hopping to explain and expose to the public the political demolition being waged by some senators against the vice president.
He said they also have plans to hold public forums to enlighten the citizenry about the “lies and concocted allegations” against their fraternity brother.
“Most chapters in Southern Luzon have also been busy accepting declarations of support for Brod Jojo from different community organizations and APO local chapters and alumni groups,” Merjudio said.
The latest Social Weather Stations poll showed that 79 percent of Filipinos want Binay to attend the hearing and directly address the allegations of corruption against him.
Mejudio said he too believed that Binay should attend the Senate hearing.
“But the subject of the hearing in his presence should be confined to the issues. There should be no ‘ad libs’ from committee members,” Merjudio said.
But Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla, Binay’s political spokesman, insisted that Binay would not attend the “farcical proceedings” of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee because its inquiry was “not in aid of legislation but in furtherance of political persecution.”
Remulla said Binay would rather go directly to the people to air his side.
Binay is scheduled to be in this city on Oct. 28 tas a guest at a conference of the Quezon Federation of Senior Citizens at the Quezon Convention Center.
The Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee has been looking into allegations that Binay and his family have unexplained wealth, allegedly from receiving kickbacks in the overpriced Makati parking building and other infrastructure projects while he was mayor. Binay vehemently denied the accusations.
The Senate inquiry is being spearheaded by Senators Aquilino Pimentel III, Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV.
The Senate is also conducting a probe into Binay’s alleged ownership of a 350-hectare estate in Rosario, Batangas.
He is also accused of failing to declare various estates in his Statement of Assets and Liabilities Net worth.
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