It’s another work of fiction, says Binay camp

Binay spokesman Joey Salgado. TWITTER PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay slammed the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee for turning its proceedings on Thursday into another public gathering of the political party faithful.

“The election campaign has started in the Senate. The proceeding earlier in the Senate is like Mr. Renato Bondal and Ernesto Mercado’s miting de avance. They questioned the propriety of the Vice President’s program that directly uplifts the lives of the people of Makati without offering any real solutions,” said Rico Quicho, Binay’s spokesman.

Another spokesman, Joey Salgado, called Bondal’s claim that Binay got P1 billion in kickbacks from the Makati Friendship Suites Project as “another work of fiction from a serial election loser in Makati and self-confessed manghuhula (seer),” he said.

Salgado recalled that Bondal earlier claimed Makati’s birthday cakes sent to residents were overpriced at P1,000.

“When this was discredited by official documents, he sheepishly admitted he only guessed it,” he said.

Guesswork

“He is the same person who pegged his claim of overpricing in the case of Makati City Hall Building II on National Statistics Office data. But the NSO had clarified that its data is not based on actual construction cost,” he said.

Salgado said Bondal had a track record of lying or using unreliable data to make “wild accusations” against Binay.

Makati City Councilor Marie Alethea Casal-Uy said, “Bondal has again resorted to guesswork or hula-hula in his latest claim.”

“Government construction costs are governed by the Government Procurement Act and the rules and regulations of the Commission on Audit. The Davis Langdon and Seah Construction Cost Handbook cited in previous hearings by Sen. Alan (Peter) Cayetano and invoked by Bondal is not among them,” Uy said.

The law allows the division of projects into phases or stages, she said, because local government units are dependent on the availability of funds.

“What is important is each phase underwent bidding as required by law,” the councilor added.

Uy also explained that the Friendship Suites project was “initially” intended for the informal settlers of the city but when the buildings were completed in 2009, she said the city government had already acquired land properties in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan province, and Calauan, Laguna province, as relocation sites for informal settlers.

Open to Makati residents

The hotel is open to Makati residents, Uy said, contrary to claims in the Senate.

Opened in October last year, the Makati Friendship Suites consists of three five-story buildings of the Bliss housing project which were renovated and refurbished after being bought from Home Guaranty Corp.

The city government earlier announced that the hotel has four executive suites for six persons, 12 superior suites for six persons, and 29 family suites for seven persons. The introductory, uniform fee for all room types was pegged at P2,100 per day.

Trillanes DAP funds

Sen. Nancy Binay said Thursday that the continued attacks on her family from Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV may have something to do with his getting P245 million in funds through the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), which the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional.

“So if you connect the dots, they seem to be related, right? In a span of one year, he got P245 million, from 2011 to 2013,” she said in a statement. “I am just wondering whether his grudge against the Binay family is being bankrolled by DAP funds. Is it because of these millions that he is trying to destroy our family?”

Trillanes said that his DAP-funded projects were on his website and that the Commission on Audit had found nothing wrong with them.

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