The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay on Sunday advised Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV to be prudent in his actions as Filipinos do not need a “highly unproductive member of the Senate at this point of time.”
In a statement, Atty. Rico Quicho, Binay’s spokesperson for political affairs, hit Trillanes for recent statements saying that Binay was involved in the reversal of the court’s ruling to allow detained real-estate developer Delfin Lee to testify in the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing on alleged irregularities in Makati City.
READ: Trillanes: Delfin Lee to testify vs Binay at Senate
Defense counsel Rico Paolo Quicho. PHOTO BY CATHY MIRANDA
“It is incumbent upon Senator (Antonio) Trillanes to be more circumspect and prudent in his actions and statements. Any thing less than these standards would be tantamount to a reckless, wayward, and highly unproductive member of the Senate, which the people certainly do not need at this point in time” Quicho said.
Trillanes had said that Lee was one of the new witnesses that would testify in the Senate inquiry and deliver an exposé against Binay.
However, Judge Amifaith Fider-Reyes of the San Fernando Regional Trial Court Branch 42 which hears Lee’s syndicated estafa case, did not allow the real-estate developer to appear before the Senate.
READ: Judge stops Delfin Lee from going to Senate
The Senator said that the court’s decision to prevent Lee from testifying in the Senate shows that “the tentacles of Binay in the judiciary are already working.”
Quicho denied the “malicious” accusation of Trillanes.
“It was the Department of Justice who is in charge of handling the case of Mr. Lee and not the Vice President. As such, it is very malicious for Senator Trillanes to insinuate, with nary any basis, that the Vice President has any direct participation in the case,” Binay’s spokesperson said.
Binay’s camp said Lee’s testimony would only vilify the Vice President with unsubstantiated claims and lies.
“It is quite demonstrable that Senator Trillanes has all the intentions to use Mr. Lee’s appearance to discredit and further vilify the Vice President in issues that are not at all related to the on-going Senate inquisition,” Quicho said, adding, “Senator Trillanes has obviously been suggesting what he wants to hear from Mr. Lee even if it would amount to more lies and innuendoes, which cannot be proved and substantiated.”
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