Ex-PCGG chief to give Binay a run for his money

MANILA, Philippines—Vice President Jejomar Binay now has an opponent for next year’s presidential elections—a former government official whose record has been marred by controversies.

Lawyer Camilo Sabio, former chair of the Presidential Commission on Good Governance (PCGG), announced on Friday that he would seek the endorsement of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) as its presidential candidate.

But if Lakas-CMD won’t support him, Sabio said he would “seek the help of the right people.”

Sabio was the second after Binay to make such formal pronouncement.

“I have made the decision to run as president and lead our people out of this bondage of poverty,” he told a press briefing at his Quezon City home.

The 78-year-old aspiring president would always begin his answer to questions about his credentials or capability to lead as president with “Have you read this one (referring to the autobiography he prepared)?”

But when asked about the charges against him, he was quick to say they were “baseless.”

“Just because a case was filed, that will already be against me? No. They are baseless and groundless,” Sabio said.

‘I am ready’

But Sabio said he was willing to go to jail for asking his younger brother, the late Court of Appeals Justice Jose Sabio, in 2008 to favor the Government Service Insurance System in its ownership dispute with the Manila Electric Company.

“I have always defended the government employees and I will continue to fight for them,” he said.

Sabio admitted calling his brother, adding, “That’s all I did and they want me to go to jail. I am ready.”

Last year, the Office of the Ombudsman found probable cause to file graft charges against Sabio for influencing his brother.

Controversies

In 2011, the antigraft body ordered the filing of criminal charges against him for allegedly misappropriating about P12 million from the recovered ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.

“There is no such thing. I have obtained P28 billion and I have not touched it at all for my own benefit,” he said.

In 2013, the Court of Appeals upheld an Ombudsman ruling finding Sabio and four others guilty of administrative charges over the anomalous lease of vehicles worth P5.3 million in 2007.

“My office needed vehicles. The decision was approved but the only question was there was no bidding,” he said.

The cases against the four others were dismissed except his because he said he was the last to file a motion to dismiss.

“I have waited. They have dismissed the case against the four then why not against me,” he added.

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