Binay brushes aside challenge to open bank accounts

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

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Jejomar Binay evaded on Monday, a challenge posed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano for him to sign a waiver to allow the Senate to look into his bank accounts.

“His dramatics have gone around the bush,” Binay said on the sidelines of the Policy Forum on Yolanda Rehabilitation at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City, on Monday.

Rehabilitation chief Panfilo Lacson and Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson were also there to present government achievements pertaining to the rehabilitation of areas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) in Eastern Visayas and efforts yet to be done.

Cayetano challenged Binay to open his bank accounts following the statement made by Binay’s erstwhile ally, former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, at a Senate inquiry last week that Binay had foreign bank deposits, which were not declared in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.

Cayetano said that if the Vice President wished not to attend the Senate inquiry into the alleged overpriced Makati City Hall Building II, he should at least sign a waiver allowing the Senate to look into his bank accounts.

Asked again about the bank accounts, Binay told a reporter: “Boss, that is too far from the issue,” apparently referring to the ongoing discussion about the rehabilitation of the typhoon-stricken areas.

While the Vice President has refused to attend the Senate hearings, he has said he will be ready to face Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV in a debate on Nov. 27 to be organized by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas.

“We will still discuss the parameters of what we will talk about. I don’t like to call it a debate. It will be just a discussion, a venue to explain things,” he said.

He added that he would bring up in the discussion the ongoing Senate probe.

“What the Senate is doing, is it right? Where did the Senate probe lead to?” he said.

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