MANILA, Philippines–Vice President Jejomar Binay on Thursday said he was confident his political enemies would not be able to find any irregular transactions in the government’s mass housing projects under Pag-Ibig Fund, contrary to claims made by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.
“No matter how hard they try, they won’t find anything,” Binay said, responding to Trillanes’ allegation that the Vice President gave contracts to favored developers and benefited from the sweetheart deals.
Speaking in an interview with TV5 “Punto Asintado” anchors Erwin Tulfo and Martin Andanar, Binay said Trillanes had no evidence to support his new allegations against him and was again “shooting from the hip.”
Rooted in Pen siege
Told by Andanar that Trillanes had told him in an interview before that his grudge against the Vice President had to do with his not making good some promises he supposedly made when the the former Navy officer led the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege, Binay said the senator was lying.
He said he and El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde did not respond to Trillanes’ call to join him in seeking to overthrow the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“Brother Mike and I quit toward the end because there were many plans that were not being shared with those who joined,” Binay said.
Binay said he and Trillanes saw each other when Trillanes was in military detention and he told him that he had requested them to do certain things but they did not.
Messianic complex
He said Trillanes had a “messianic complex” then and even now.
“Did you know that he believed people on Ayala would come down from their offices as in Edsa 1 and support him?” Binay said.
But no one came down to join Trillanes and his group when they walked to Ayala and that was why the group was forced to “retreat” and go to Manila Peninsula instead, Binay said.
Binay’s new spokesperson, lawyer Rico Quicho, said Trillanes should publicly apologize for sullying not only the reputation of the Vice President but also that of Pag-Ibig Fund, its officials and members.
Speaking on ANC’s Headstart program, Quicho said Trillanes’ statements involving Pag-Ibig and the absence of evidence to prove his claim had hurt the government employees there.
Quicho said Trillanes was working only for his own “self-aggrandizement.”
He said the Vice President would proceed with his bid for the presidency in 2016 despite the corruption allegations being hurled at him.
“Nothing can stop him,” Quicho said.
What political ad?
Pag-Ibig President and Chief Executive Officer Darlene Berberabe belied Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano’s claim that Binay had lobbied Pag-Ibig Fund to produce a political advertisement for him.
In a statement, Binay’s office quoted Berberabe as saying in an interview on ANC that the Pag-Ibig board of trustees did discuss who would be the best spokesperson for the agency to appear in commercials to promote its services.
Berberabe said she asked Binay in the meeting what he thought of the discussion.
“And categorically, Vice President Binay said, ‘Not me,’” Berberabe said.
She refuted Trillanes’ claims that Binay gave housing projects to favored contractors, saying that on the contrary, the Vice President removed special arrangements and special favors from the Pag-Ibig system, as the fund was still reeling from the housing scam allegedly perpetrated by the group of Delfin Lee.
‘Queen of Chismis’
Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco, interim president of Binay’s political party United Nationalist Alliance, called Cayetano “Queen of Chismis” (Gossip Queen) for continuing to sow intrigue against the Vice President.
Tiangco said it was the height of hypocrisy for Cayetano to disparage Binay for wanting to use Pag-Ibig funds for selfish political gains when he himself was the one guilty of the charge.
“Cayetano has been appearing in political ads using Taguig when he is not even the mayor of the city. The cost of the Cayetano ads has been estimated at around P500 million but the senator has not been candid about who is paying for the ads and if Taguig funds were used,” Tiangco said.
“Cayetano once again displayed his trademark hypocrisy. Not only that, he also confirmed his reputation as the Queen of Chismis and Intrigue in the Senate when he made that false statement about the Vice President,” he said.
Tiangco said Cayetano should be the one who must be charged for “false advertising” for claiming in his TV ads that there was no corruption in Taguig City, which is led by his wife, Mayor Lani Cayetano.
“No less than the Commission on Audit uncovered these shocking anomalies in its audit report. These are adverse findings of overpricing, missing inventories, ghost employees, overpayment. How can Cayetano reconcile these actual and verified audit findings with his TV ad message? That’s false advertising,” Tiangco said.