Vice President denies anew Tiu is his dummy

Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines–Vice President Jejomar Binay on Thursday denied that businessman Antonio Tiu was a dummy for a 350-hectare property in Batangas province.

Interviewed on radio in Naga City, Binay replied in the negative when asked whether Tiu, who claims to be the registered owner of the Batangas property, was a dummy.

Binay complained that members of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee investigating alleged corruption in Makati during his term as mayor, have a low regard for Tiu.

“I think that guy is a billionaire and a Ten Most Outstanding Young Men awardee,” Binay said, adding that he was not watching the live televised Senate hearing for fear his blood pressure would rise.

Binay observed, however, that Tiu continues to appear at the hearings despite the way he is being treated.

He said he pitied Tiu, especially because the businessman’s loan applications were now being held by banks.

“He was told he would be given loans if he would turn around and admit he was a dummy,” Binay said.

The Vice President, however, did not say who told Tiu to change his testimony.

Binay also blamed Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV for using the dummy tag on Tiu.

He took potshots at Trillanes, pointing out that the senator himself, when the opposition raised his ownership of several vehicles, said he was a dummy for his mother.

“So he thinks all people are like him,” Binay said.

Binay criticized Trillanes’ reasoning that because he cannot find evidence proving that Tiu is the owner of the Batangas property, he has concluded that the businessman is a dummy for the Vice President.

He also chided Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano for criticizing Tiu’s moves to own the property. “A businessman is a risk-taker,” Binay said.

Binay echoed his party mates’ accusations that Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, his potential rival in the 2016 presidential election, had political advertisements in the Visayas, boosting Roxas’ ratings in the latest voter preference polls.

Binay acknowledged that Roxas’ numbers are up, and that the Visayas delivered the spike.

“He is aggressively advertising everywhere in the Visayas, and it has boosted his numbers,” Binay said.

But even if his own numbers are down, his supporters since 2010 remain, as shown by his preference rating of 36 to 41 percentage points, he said.