Senator Nancy Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Senator Nancy Binay said on Tuesday that her father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, had made sure that contracts entered into by government housing agencies were carefully scrutinized, since he did not want a repeat of the controversies that had hounded them in the previous administration.
Senator Binay came to the Vice President’s defense amid allegations from Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV that the elder Binay has been placed under investigation for alleged housing anomalies.
According to Senator Binay, the controversy over the alleged Globe Asiatique scam had prompted the Vice President, the country’s housing czar, to be meticulous about deals related to housing.
In the alleged scam, Globe Asiatique had supposedly used bogus borrowers to obtain loans from the Home Development Mutual Fund, or the Pag-Ibig fund, for its housing projects. Globe Asiatique’s Delfin Lee is currently detained for syndicated estafa.
“He has really been careful because the previous administration faced a lot of allegations. The first thing he did was to make sure all contracts entered into by the different housing agencies are closely scrutinized, especially coming from the Globe Asiatique scandal,” Senator Binay told reporters
According to her, all projects of the housing agencies had gone through the board and contracts were handled by the bids and awards committee.
She pointed out that the housing issue was beyond the scope of the Blue Ribbon subcommittee, which was supposed to look only into alleged anomalies in Makati during the Vice President’s term as mayor.
She further said despite the many allegations being made in the long-running hearings, there has been no solid evidence presented against her father.
As example, she cited claims that the piggery in a vast farm supposedly owned by her father was air-conditioned, when a visit to the place showed the piggery had none.
The hearings were no longer in aid of legislation, but “in aid of ambition,” since Trillanes has been preparing to run for higher office in 2016, she added.
Sen. JV Ejercito, a Binay ally, also said the government’s housing agencies have been doing well in the past four years under the helm of the Vice President Jejomar Binay.
Ejercito, who chairs the Senate urban planning, housing and resettlement committee, said the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council under Binay has had a good record.
He also said that after the housing loan controversy involving Delfin Lee’s Globe Asiatique broke out, the country’s housing officials would have been doubly careful about their transactions.
“As far as I know, as the chair of the committee on housing, based on reports and accomplishments of Pag Ibig and the HUDCC, they have had a good performance in the past four years,” Ejercito told reporters.
“Coming from the Delfin Lee anomaly in the previous administration, I think whoever took over the HUDCC, in this this case Vice President Binay, and the new Pag Ibig head… would be doubly careful that the controversy would not happen again,” he added.
Earlier, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV alleged that Binay, the country’s housing czar, was under investigation for allegedly favoring certain developers when awarding government housing projects.
Trillanes also said that the issue, though not in the agenda, might be mentioned in the next hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee which has been looking into alleged Makati City anomalies during Binay’s term as mayor.
The Binay camp has been critical of the Senate probe, which it said was instigated by the Vice President’s political rivals in order to dislodge him from the top spot in voter preference surveys.
Ejercito also noted that the people behind the Senate hearings had admitted that they wanted Binay’s ratings to go down, and further lamented that the issue has clouded other important matters that policy-makers should also be tackling.
Much attention should be given to the energy crisis, the improvement of the country’s infrastructure, especially mass transit, and the peace and order situation, he said.
Ejercito said he was not saying this to defend Binay as his party mate in the United Nationalist Alliance. He said he simply wanted the remaining months of the Aquino administration to be used productively instead of being consumed by politics.