Charges vs. Drilon ploy to divert attention from Binay–LP execs

MANILA, Philippines – Leaders of the Liberal Party said Saturday that a purported ploy by the United Nationalist Alliance to deflect the public’s attention from Vice President Jejomar Binay to Senate President Franklin Drilon over corruption allegations had “completely backfired.”

They said alleged attempts by Binay’s party to divert the public’s and media’s attention to the alleged overpricing of the P700-million Iloilo Convention Center, a pet project of Drilon, failed when his accuser, former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada, admitted that he had no evidence to back his claims.

Former provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada. NOY MORCOSO/INQUIRER.net

In a statement, Caloocan Representative Edgardo Erice, LP chair for political affairs, and Iloilo City Representative Jerry Treñas, deputy chair of the LP’s Visayas bloc, said the investigation into the Iloilo Convention Center also showed the contrast between Binay’s and Drilon’s actions in response to the accusations against each of them.

“UNA’s attempt to use a fraud like Mejorada to manipulate public attention away from Binay’s continued evasion of the charges against him has completely failed,” the LP leaders said.

“All that it showed is how shameful really is Binay’s continued evasion of the Senate probe, when he can emulate Drilon by attending the probe as a resource person and gamely answering all questions,” Erice said in the same statement.

Erice scored what he described as the “mediocrity” of the questions raised by Binay’s daughter, Senator Nancy Binay, during the Senate hearing, calling it an “undeniable manifestation of why Filipinos should not vote on mere popularity and affinity.”

He also lambasted Mejorada for “wantonly wasting the Senate’s time by producing not a single evidence to his many allegations.”

“By accusing some of the most reputable officials in the land in the Senate without a single evidence, he just showed the nation what Ilonggos have long known – that this guy is a hack who will say anything for a price,” Erice said.

Treñas said the former Iloilo official must produce concrete evidence before dragging the province’s name in the mud by his accusations.

“Mejorada, in his attempt to peddle fabrications, has tagged Iloilo City in all sorts of vile and malicious controversies, and yet is empty-handed when asked for material evidence,” he said.

“Mejorada and his political backers ought to be ashamed of dragging our hometown and its people, just so they could further their own selfish motives,” Treñas said.

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