Strike 2: Binay cancels debate

MANILA, Philippines–Vice President Jejomar Binay on his 72nd birthday on Tuesday had a change of heart on his decision to take part in a debate with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a face-off that he himself had asked for.

The week before, Binay was a no-show at the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing that he himself had sought so he could give his side on allegations of corruption and ill-gotten wealth hurled against him in the inquiry being conducted by its subcommittee.

It was Trillanes who filed the resolution that started the subcommittee probe of the alleged overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building II and other alleged anomalies in the city when Binay was its mayor.

Binay earlier complained that the subcommittee leading the inquiry had already prejudged him. His camp also branded the panel a “kangaroo court” that seeks to derail his chances in the 2016 presidential election.

On Tuesday morning, right after he joined the boodle fight of the members of the Philippine Navy at the Bonifacio Naval Station in Taguig City, the Vice President announced that he was backing out of the debate scheduled for Nov. 27.

Final

“Ayoko na. Final na (I withdraw [from the debate] and it’s final),” he said when reporters asked him at least three times if he was serious.

“I don’t like to be appearing as someone taking advantage over the situation while this person (Trillanes) is looking pitiful and stupid. It’s enough,” Binay said.

The Vice President was initially asked to comment on Trillanes’ earlier statements.

Reacting to Binay’s decision, Trillanes said the Vice President backed out of the debate because he was afraid that the people would know that he conspired with Magdalo soldiers in 2007 to try to unseat then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In previous interviews, Trillanes said he would be in an unfavorable situation in the debate because Binay was a lawyer while he was just a soldier.

Binay was a practicing human rights lawyer before he was appointed acting mayor of Makati by then President Cory Aquino in 1986.

“I don’t like it that the debate has not yet started and yet he was already sowing intrigues,” Binay said.

The Vice President said his only advantage was he had the facts.

“Let’s just talk about facts. That’s it. There should be no room for speculations,” Binay said.

Binay, who has been snubbing the Senate subcommittee hearings, challenged Trillanes to a debate last month.

Trillanes willingly accepted and recommended that the Vice President’s supposed 350-hectare estate in Rosario, Batangas province, be one of the topics.

Before Binay withdrew his challenge, the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), which was organizing the debate, had announced that the face-off would be on Nov. 27.

Malacañang

Malacañang said it respected the decision of the Vice President to back out of the debate.

Asked if Malacañang was disappointed that the much-awaited debate would no longer take place, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said: “We’re pretty certain that the Vice President weighed all his options before making a decision not to push through. Perhaps, there will be other opportunities to air his side.”

Binay’s family has lorded it over Makati City for over two decades, with himself, his wife and only son alternately occupying the post of local chief executive.

Trillanes has repeatedly said Binay is unfit to be the country’s president. Binay has declared his intention to run in the 2016 presidential election.

Best forum

Sen. Francis Escudero said the Senate was still the best forum for the Vice President to respond to the allegations against him.

He noted that the Senate was where various accusations were hurled against Binay and that it was also the Senate’s obligation to offer him the chance to respond to the accusers.

Escudero also pointed out that if Binay merely submitted his response to the Office of the Ombudsman, where he is facing a plunder complaint in connection with the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall parking building, the proceedings would be confidential and the people would not be able to hear his side of the story.

Thus, the Senate is still the best forum for the people to hear Binay’s side, he said. “Even if he would be pelted with controversial or difficult questions, the answers would not change.”

On the scuttled debate, Escudero said that Binay should not have made the challenge in the first place.

Disservice

He said Binay’s decision to back out would add to the things the Vice President had to explain.

Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla supported Binay’s decision, saying the debate with Trillanes would be a disservice to the millions who still have to recover from the devastation caused by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan).

“Now is not the time for talk but for action. The Vice President is prioritizing the country over self, recovery over bickering, the people over himself. He will be in the Visayas next week putting all his efforts into the task of housing given to him by the President,” said Remulla, Binay’s spokesman for political affairs.

“The truth of the allegations [made against the Vice President] is now in the hands of the Ombudsman,” he added.

Binay, chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, was recently designated by President Aquino to head the government’s Yolanda Resettlement Cluster.–With reports from Nikko Dizon and Leila Salaverria