VP skips Senate, flies to Cebu

MANILA, Philippines–“What a pity,” Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona III said, lamenting Vice President Jejomar Binay’s decision not to appear in a Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on Thursday to answer charges of corruption against him.

Refusing to face his accusers, Binay flew to Cebu City Thursday morning, but sent a letter to Guingona saying that his appearance in the hearing could set a bad precedent where the second-highest executive official in the land could be summoned for questioning in the Senate.

Binay, however, told Guingona that he would submit an affidavit containing his detailed response to the allegations of corruption against him, which he described as “baseless accusations” and “lies.”

Guingona said Binay’s affidavit was not submitted on Thursday, but the Vice President could still send it to the committee and it would become part of the record.

The blue ribbon committee rejected a request that Binay’s representative, JV Bautista, be allowed to read the Vice President’s statement at the hearing.

Guingona said he would have allowed Bautista to read Binay’s statement into the record, but he was outvoted by the other committee members present.

The three other members present on Thursday were Senators Aquilino Pimentel III, Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV, all active participants in a blue ribbon subcommittee inquiry into alleged irregularities in Makati when Binay was mayor of the city.

Guingona said Binay wasted the chance to respond to the allegations of corruption against him by not appearing in the hearing.

The hearing was called specifically for Binay, after his camp said he would consider appearing at the Senate if the invitation would come from the blue ribbon committee and not from its subcommittee.

Public didn’t hear VP’s side

“In rejecting the invitation of the mother committee, he wasted the important chance to explain his side to the people. It’s saddening that the Vice President did not give the public the chance to hear his side so that they could form their own views and conclusion on these issues,” Guingona said.

Guingona said he was disappointed that the Vice President declined his invitation despite the assurance that he would be treated fairly, accorded courtesy befitting his position in government, and given the chance to face his accusers and respond to their allegations.

Asked if he took Binay’s absence as a direct affront, Guingona said he did not. He was just lamenting the wasted opportunity, he said.

But he said he would not invite Binay again to a hearing to give him another chance to air his side.

“I already adjourned the committee. So that was it,” Guingona said

Binay’s political spokesman, Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla, said the Vice President flew to Cebu at 9 a.m. to attend events organized by the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, of which Binay is national president. Binay spends a second night in Cebu after attending Philippine Centennial Jamboree for the Visayas. He will fly on Saturday for Zamboanga.

Tiangco’s opposition

In a telephone interview, Remulla said he had advised Binay to postpone the Cebu trip so he could go to the Senate hearing.

But Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, interim president of Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), advised against Binay going to the hearing.

“Toby was against it and apparently the Vice President heeded his advice,” Remulla said.

Tiangco, in a news conference at the Senate, said he received a call from Binay at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday and he told him that he would not go to the hearing.

Both Tiangco and Bautista, UNA interim secretary general, said that the “last straw” for the Vice President was Trillanes’ statement on Tuesday that the senators intended to grill him for six hours.

Tiangco said Binay’s attendance would set a bad precedent because no vice president had been forced to face the Senate as part of Congress’ respect for the institution.

He wanted to go

Binay’s going to the hearing would have far-reaching consequences for future vice presidents, who could be summoned and subjected to humiliation, with their rights violated by some senators with clear political motives, Tiangco said.

In his letter to Guingona, Binay said he wanted to attend the hearing because the blue ribbon committee chair had assured him that he would be “accorded a fair hearing” and that he would be given respect befitting his position.

But he said he had doubts when Cayetano sent Tiangco and Bautista away during the Oct. 30 hearing despite an earlier invitation for him to send representatives and witnesses to the inquiry.

“The behavior of Senators Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV last Oct. 30, and in previous hearings, proves that they are not ready to hear any explanation that contradicts their conclusion that I am guilty,” Binay said.

“They continue to demonstrate this in their continued bullying, debasement, suppression and intimidation of ordinary people whose testimonies contradict their conclusion,” he said.

Binay said he was sad that none of the Senate leaders had “[taken] notice, reminded or called the attention” of the two senators to “their wanton disregard of individual rights and of the law.”

“If these senators were not even admonished in the past 11 hearings, and if my authorized representatives were treated like criminals, I see no assurance that I will be given the chance to speak freely, that my rights will be recognized, or that the Office of the Vice President of the Philippines will be accorded the respect it deserves,” Binay said.

‘They ridicule, belittle’

In an interview on dyHP radio in Cebu City, Binay said he would not go to the Senate investigation until Cayetano and Trillanes changed their behavior.

“You’ve seen how Senator Trillanes and Senator Cayetano act. They humiliate, ridicule, belittle. Why would I go there? Just last night, I heard they would grill me for six hours,” Binay said.

“Even the assurance of Senator Guingona that they would be in proper decorum is doubtful. Those two senators, what they do is for TV,” he said.

After the blue ribbon committee adjourned, the subcommittee chaired by Pimentel resumed its inquiry into the alleged overpricing in the construction of the P2.28-billion Makati City Hall Building II and other charges of corruption against Binay.

The Vice President’s son, Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay, again failed to appear at the hearing, but told the subcommittee through his lawyer that he should not be faulted for his absence in previous hearings despite being issued a subpoena.

List of questions

In his letter on behalf of the mayor, lawyer Claro Certeza said the subcommittee had yet to respond to the mayor’s earlier request for the list of questions he would be required to answer.

Certeza said that the mayor is well within his rights to ask for a list of questions. And since the committee has not acceded to his request, he should not be taken to task for his absence in the previous hearings.

The letter was in response to the Senate’s order to the mayor to explain why he should not be cited in contempt of the Senate.

At Thursday’s hearing, the ghost of another infrastructure project came back to haunt Binay, allegations that the Makati Science High School building was overpriced by P862 million.

Using a PowerPoint presentation, whistle-blower Renato Bondal resumed his testimony, saying the 10-story building should have cost only around P470 million. But he said the Makati city government had so far spent P1.333 billion for the P1.5-billion project located in Barangay Cembo.

With 54 classrooms, the building was worth P72,500 per square meters when the amount should have been only P25,620 per sqm, based on last year’s price, he said.

“We can see that the building was 283 percent overpriced [meaning] the Binays’ got a kickback three times [the original amount]. That’s how big it was,” he said in Filipino.

Most expensive in PH

“Like the [P2.28-billion] Makati parking building, which is the most expensive parking building in the Philippines, this high school building is the most expensive high school building in the Philippines,” he added.

Bondal drew a comparison between the Makati high school building and high-end condominium buildings such as Greenbelt Residences (P45,000 per sqm) and the Shang Grand Towers (P40,000 per sqm).

“They might again say that the comparison is not apples to apples. I agree because the big buildings, they’re apples. The Makati Science High School building, it’s aratilis (a local tiny fruit),” he said. “We now see a pattern of overpricing.”

Mario Hechanova, who headed the Makati general services department when Binay was the mayor, said the science high school building was among no less than 10 projects bid out on Dec. 28, 2007.

He said the bidders were always the same and the biddings were rigged.

Based on Bondal’s presentation, there were seven companies “invited” to bid for the high school building’s design, among them, JFR Aquino Design. But the firm’s Jose Francisco Aquino said he had no idea how his company was included in the bidding.

‘Ridiculous’ bidding

To illustrate the “ridiculous” nature of the so-called bidding, Cayetano told Aquino that his firm, with a supposed bid of P17.5 million, would have ended up winning the contract had Infiniti Architectural Works been “disqualified.” Infiniti’s supposed bid was P17.25 million.

Bondal noted that Infiniti submitted a proposal on the same day it got an invitation to bid.

Construction was divided into six phases with Hilmarc’s Construction Corp., the same contractor of the Makati City Hall Building II, securing the project as the lone bidder each time, Bondal alleged.

Responding to a senator’s question, Executive Director Dennis Santiago of the Government Procurement Policy Board said “artificial phasing” was not allowed.

Bondal said the first phase of the project in 2007 amounted to P99.631 million. For the second phase worth P174,953,468 million, he said Hilmarc’s placed a bid of P174,508,398.69 million.

“It was by a hairline,” he said, referring to the slight difference between the project cost and the amount of bid.

He said such was also the case in the project’s Phase 3 worth P149,992,071. He said Hilmarc’s bid was worth P149,504,024.

Lacking 4 dormitories

Inaugurated on Feb. 14 this year, the Makati Science High School building still lacked four dormitories that should have been included, said Bondal, who claimed that the building’s eighth to 10th floors were off-limits to the public.

Trillanes moved for an ocular inspection of the school building.

“They shouldn’t hide if they’re not hiding anything,” Cayetano said. “We’re not saying that the project is bad. In fact, it’s very good. The problem is overprice, meaning instead of one good project, they can make two or three good projects [given the amount].”–With reports from Gil C. Cabacungan and Christin O. Avendaño in Manila and Doris C. Bongcac, Inquirer Visayas