SC upholds integrity and honesty

The present Supreme Court is trying to correct a ruling   made   in 1959 which condoned the illegal act of an elected official by virtue of his reelection.

Because of such a correction, there is a strong possibility that Makati Mayor Junjun Binay’s six-month suspension imposed by the Office of the Ombudsman may be upheld by the high tribunal.

The suspension was prevented by the Court of Appeals, prompting Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales to go to the Supreme Court.

The suspension is in connection with an investigation into the alleged gross overpricing of Makati City Hall Building II which was finished during Binay’s previous term.

Binay’s lawyer, Sandra Marie Olaso-Coronel, got a lecture from Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno for invoking the condonation doctrine.

The doctrine stemmed from a Supreme Court ruling in 1959 in which the mayor of San Jose, Nueva Ecija province, was absolved from administrative charges by virtue of his

reelection.

Sereno’s words to Coronel are worth writing in stone:

“It is the duty of this court to promote honesty and integrity in public service, because the Constitution is, first and foremost, our most important document and covenant that we must uphold.

“Because if we uphold your theory, we are basically going to say, with respect to all those laws, those offenses and those penalties, they cannot apply to reelected officials.”

Cheers to the present Supreme Court for upholding integrity and honesty in governance!

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Makati Rep. Abigail Binay says her family will take revenge on their detractors and political enemies when her father, Vice President Jojo, becomes president.

How presumptuous and cocky of her!

Because of such effrontery on national TV, Abigail and her siblings—Makati Mayor Junjun and Senator Nancy— will not get reelected and her father will not bag the presidency despite his high ratings in the surveys now.

I’m reminded of a congressional candidate years ago who was asked on TV how he would take it if he lost his reelection bid, and his reply was he would never lose.

The stacks were high in favor of his reelection, but he lost heavily because of that interview.

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The Binays have inadvertently shed off their “kawawa” (pitiful) mask and exposed their true colors.

They want power not to help the poor as they claim, but to use it for their own selfish ends.

For anyway one looks at it, Abby Binay’s threat to get back at her family’s detractors and political enemies when her father wins the presidency is nothing but the wielding of power the wrong way.

Have we forgotten what Mayor Junjun Binay did to the security guards who prevented him and his convoy from using the closed gate of Dasmariñas Village in Makati City?

Shortly after Jojo Binay was named officer in charge of Makati in 1986 when Cory Aquino became President, he ordered the closure of the exclusive YMCA Club after its management refused to allow his children to use the swimming pool because they were not accompanied by a member.

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I no longer have any doubts who was behind the beating up of my then 14-year-old daughter at a Makati condominium, where she and her mother lived, in 2010.

While he was punching my daughter in the face and body, the unidentified man said, “This is for your father.”

I had commented in this column about the irregularities in the purchase of hospital equipment for the Ospital ng Makati by the Makati City government then under Mayor Elenita Binay.