MANILA, Philippines—While he has not decided whether to accept the invitation for him to appear before the Senate blue ribbon committee, Vice President Jejomar Binay readily agreed to the invitation of Catholic bishops to meet with them and air his side on the corruption allegations against him.
Binay said his meeting with members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) would give him the chance to clear his name and that of his family.
“It would be an honor to meet with you and other members of the CBCP and the Church,” he said in a letter to Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, chair of the CBCP committee on public affairs.
The Vice President said he was “grateful” for the chance “to clear my name and put an end to this tired issue.”
Binay’s camp said the date of the meeting between Binay and the CBCP had yet to be set.
Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
Pabillo invited Binay to meet with CBCP members after he met with seven former Makati City officials who have accused the Vice President of enriching himself from kickbacks in the city government’s infrastructure projects, including the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building II, now the subject of a Senate blue ribbon subcommittee probe.
The former city officials, led by former Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, also alleged that Binay, through dummy corporations, owned a 350-hectare property dubbed “Hacienda Binay.”
The Vice President has denied the allegations, saying these were all political noises aimed at destroying his bid for the presidency in 2016.
Bent on getting the side of Binay, the Senate blue ribbon committee sent him on Tuesday, a formal invitation to attend the Nov. 6 hearing on the alleged overpricing of the 11-story Makati City Hall parking building.
Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chair of the committee, sent the invitation to the Vice President’s office. He said it was issued so that Binay could “shed light and deliberate on” the issue raised in the Senate resolution seeking an inquiry into the alleged overpricing of the Makati building and related anomalies purportedly committed by former and current officials of the city.
The resolution was filed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a vocal critic of Binay and whom the Vice President has challenged to a debate.
Guingona said Binay would be accorded the proper treatment in the Senate. “Please rest assured that we will extend the courtesies befitting the Office of the Vice President,” he said in his letter.
Since it is only an invitation, Binay can choose not to heed it and face no penalty.
The blue ribbon subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, has been handling the inquiry into the alleged corrupt practices in Makati and has invited Binay to its hearing so that he could respond to the allegations that had been made there against him.
Binay, however, has refused the invitation. His camp later said he might appear before the Senate if the mother blue ribbon committee would conduct the probe.
Guingona subsequently announced that he would accept the challenge and would issue the invitation to the Vice President.
In the meantime, Pimentel’s subcommittee is continuing its inquiry. Another hearing is scheduled for today where it is expected to delve further into the alleged ownership of Sunchamp Agri-Tourism Park in Rosario, Batangas, which Binay’s critics said was actually his estate.
Asked if Guingona’s invitation meant that the mother committee would take over the probe of the Makati City anomalies from the subcommittee, Pimentel said that would not happen.
While Guingona would convene the mother committee exclusively to give Binay the opportunity to appear before it, the subcommittee would also continue with its own probe, he said.
“The mother committee provides the VP with the opportunity to appear. We can use the records of his appearance as part of the subcommittee records,” he said in a text message.
In a brief interview, Pimentel said he would schedule a hearing of the subcommittee immediately after Guingona’s Nov. 6 hearing for Binay.
If Binay would appear in Guingona’s committee and the hearing would take more than an hour, the subcommittee hearing for that day would be scuttled. If the Vice President does not show up and Guingona adjourns his hearing, the subcommittee would hold its hearing.
While Guingona’s hearing is exclusively for Binay, other members of the blue ribbon committee could attend it. Pimentel said he would attend the hearing to be chaired by Guingona.
He said there were no special rules for the appearance of the Vice President, but he would be accorded respect.
Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla, Binay’s political spokesperson, said the Binay camp would decide over the weekend whether the Vice President would attend the hearing set on Nov. 6.
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