MANILA, Philippines—Liberal Party (LP) members defended Senate President Franklin Drilon and other Cabinet officials accused of being behind the purportedly overpriced Iloilo Convention Center (ICC), saying Vice President Jejomar Binay’s camp is behind the allegations.
In a statement on Tuesday, LP Secretary General and Western Samar Representative Mel Senen Sarmiento said Binay’s camp is behind the accusations to divert the public from its clamor for Binay to attend the Senate probe on the alleged corruption in Makati when Binay was mayor.
“The timing of the graft charges against Drilon and two other Cabinet secretaries by a discredited Iloilo political operator is suspect,” Sarmiento said in the statement.
Senate President Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Graft and plunder charges have been filed against Drilon, Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and other Department of Public Works and Highways officials before the Ombudsman over the allegedly overpriced ICC, a purported P700-million pet project of Drilon being carried out by Hilmarc’s Construction Corp., the contractor of the allegedly overpriced Makati parking building that supposedly benefited Binay.
Sarmiento added that the charges were filed at the time Binay confirmed talking to President Benigno Aquino III reportedly to ask him to stop the Senate probe on the alleged corruption in Makati.
“We suspect that the filing of the charges against Drilon is mere harassment to finally thwart the Senate’s probe of alleged overpricing… and allegations of ill-gotten wealth against the Vice President,” Sarmiento said.
LP’s Eastern Samar Representative Ben Evardone called the move the Binay camp’s “squid tactic” to divert the public’s attention.
“These spurious fabrications should not shield the Vice President from the real issue: his unexplained refusal to answer the charges against him…” Evardone said.
Iloilo City Representative Jerry Treñas, who is LP’s Visayas bloc deputy chair, said UNA is “desperate” to spare Binay from public scrutiny amid the Vice President’s plans to run for president in 2016.
“They were resorting to spiteful personality attacks to muddle the issue and it is clear that among their targets are the allies of the President…” Trenas said.
“(This is only) the tip of the iceberg of a wide and massive political plot to discredit President Aquino’s anti-corruption drive,” he added.
Binay faces a plunder complaint before the Ombudsman for the allegedly overpriced Makati parking building when he was mayor in 2007. He was accused in the Senate probe of earning kickbacks from the Makati parking building and other infrastructure projects when he was Makati mayor.
On the other hand, Drilon was accused as being behind the move to balloon the cost of construction of the ICC from P192 million to P488 million.
According to the complainant, former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada, Drilon set aside for the project P200 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), P200 million from the Department of Tourism and P100 million from Malacañang’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), parts of which were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
An additional of P200 million was also funded by DAP, Mejorada said.
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