Binay must answer questions–Guingona

Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines–Vice President Jejomar Binay can’t just read a statement but has to take questions, too, if he appears before the Senate on Thursday, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III said on Tuesday.

The blue ribbon committee, which Guingona chairs, is expecting Binay at the hearing on Thursday morning to respond to mounting charges of corruption and ill-gotten wealth.

Binay has said that he would face the Senate if the invitation came from the mother committee. Binay has snubbed an invitation by the subcommittee, which, he said, was a forum to vilify him ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Guingona set the mother committee’s hearing at 9 a.m. on Thursday solely to hear Binay’s response to the charges.

But as of Tuesday, the Vice President has not responded to the committee’s formal invitation issued last week, according to the committee staff.

Fair treatment

“Yes, he’ll have to take questions,” Guingona told reporters. “In the spirit of fairness, he can be asked questions also.”

He said the Vice President could request only to read a statement, but granting this would be another matter.

Otherwise, Guingona assured the Vice President of fair treatment, respect and ample time to air his side to the charges, aired by erstwhile political allies.

Allegations

The rest of the committee members, including Senators Aquilino Pimentel III, Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV—who constitute a subcommittee—can pose questions.

“Yes, but I control the proceedings and I’ll make sure it will be done with the proper decorum,” Guingona said. “We will make sure that what he’s apprehensive about in the subcommittee … won’t happen here.”

Binay has been accused of pocketing kickbacks from infrastructure deals whose bidding had been allegedly rigged to frequently favor the same contractor during his watch as Makati mayor.

On top of this, he’s now fending off charges he owns a P1.2-billion, 350-hectare high-end farm in Rosario town, Batangas, by using dummies.

Binay has denied the charges, saying these were part of a demolition job to derail his presidential bid in 2016.

The committee has not received a formal reply from Binay and hopes it will be furnished one as late as Wednesday.

“Still, waiting for official word. Unless I get official word, I don’t want to say anything,” Guingona said. “Right now, all I want to know is whether he will come or not.”

If the Vice President declines the invitation, “I’m sure he will lay down the reasons and we will take a look at the reasons,” he added.

Personal invitation

Guingona said the invitation was personal to Binay, and hence, the Vice President could not send someone to represent him.

“This session is an invitation for the Vice President, no one else,” he said. “If he doesn’t come, what for will we convene?”

Subcommittee hearing

The subcommittee has scheduled the resumption of its hearing on the allegedly overpriced P2.28-billion Makati City Hall Building II at around 10 a.m. on the same day.

The subcommittee hearing would push ahead regardless of whether Binay would show up, said its chair, Pimentel.

“If the VP will be there, I will instruct the committee staff to tell my resource persons and witnesses that we’re resetting the hearing. We have to cancel our hearing because we give all the time to the VP. If the VP will not attend, expect us to be there by 10 a.m.,” Pimentel said.

Hinting at snub

After being thrown out for suddenly showing up at last week’s hearing without invitation, Binay’s spokesman JV Bautista dropped hints the Vice President would snub the hearing.

“They’re like mad dogs. If they are not in control of themselves, do you think he will subject himself to that kind of aggravation?” Bautista said.

Comparing it with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines invitation to Binay, the Senate invitation was an inquiry in aid of legislation, Guingona said.

“Hopefully, we can come up with laws to make the system better,” he said.

Big fight against graft

The investigation of the anomalies allegedly involving the Vice President would be the country’s “last big fight versus corruption,” Trillanes said.

He said the country’s second highest official had likely amassed “at least” P10 billion from alleged illegal transactions when he was Makati mayor for more than two decades.

“This would be our last big fight versus corruption because he is the face of corruption. After we (make) Binay (accountable), our country will be on the road to reform and development,” Trillanes told the Inquirer on Monday.

Trillanes said he believed that Binay represented the “remnants of the old corrupt system” in government which he said included former President now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile.

Arroyo is now under hospital arrest as she faces various corruption charges. Enrile is similarly in hospital arrest as he tries to fight off charges government filed against him for his alleged involvement in the Priority Development Assistance Fund, or pork barrel, scam.

“You defeat Binay, nobody would try to emulate him anymore,” the senator said. It’s not that there would no longer be any corrupt public officials, Trillanes said. But Binay’s alleged corrupt activities would be the last when it comes to magnitude and scale, he said.

Nothing proven

Sought for comment, Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco said Trillanes had not proven anything in the Senate investigation against Binay for the senator to claim a last big fight against corruption.

“I think he (Trillanes) is already starting to hallucinate. He is not the only one against corruption. We are all against corruption but all (Trillanes’) statements are politically motivated to destroy the credibility of the Vice President,” Tiangco told the Inquirer by phone.

Tiangco is the interim president of the United Nationalist Alliance, the political party of Binay.

Tiangco said Trillanes himself was guilty of corruption by using the Senate as his pulpit against Binay.

“He is abusing his power and that is also corruption. If he has evidence of corruption against the Vice President, then he should file it with the Ombudsman, which is the proper venue. He is only making these allegations in the Senate because he has immunity. I dare him to waive his immunity and then make these accusations against the Vice President,” Tiangco said.