Binay camp: We will not be intimidated

Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ NINO JESUS ORBETA

Vice President Jejomar Binay’s camp on Saturday said they “will not be cowed” by the charges filed against them, especially after an Ombudsman panel found probable cause to indict the Vice President and his son Makati Mayor Junjun Binay for their involvement in the allegedly overpriced Makati parking building.

READ: Binays face graft indictment

“There is absolutely no evidence to show any criminal liability on the part of the Vice President and the other respondents,” Atty. Rico Quicho, Binay’s spokesperson, said in a statement. “The Vice President remains firm that the complaints against him, Mayor Junjun Binay and other Makati City Hall officials have no basis in fact and in law.”

He accused the special panel, which indicted 22 others, of not being “forthright.”

READ: Binay, son face graft raps

The report of the special panel, dated May 4, said the Makati parking building “is a clear instance of diversion of people’s money and putting it in the hands of private contractors.” At the time of its construction, the Vice President was still the mayor of Makati.

The panel said Binay committed 14 offenses while his son is responsible for 15 offenses. Not only did the Vice President then allowed negotiated procurement instead of a regular bidding of the building’s architectural design, he also signed the pertinent documents according to the report.

“With the foregoing acts, respondents public officials cannot deny knowledge of and participation in the procurement of the design and the construction and release of public funds amounting to more than P2.2 billion for the Makati parking building which is tainted with irregularities,” the report said.

But Quicho reiterated earlier claims that an “unscrupulous group” is trying to tarnish the reputation of Binay, who will run for president in the 2016 elections.

He said the Office of the Ombudsman’s issuance of a preventive suspension order against the Makati mayor was a sign of “partiality and bias tot he point of disregarding the law and well-settled jurisprudence.”

Citing the ongoing probe in the Senate, Quicho said the Ombudsman should not allow itself to be used by other groups for “political persecution.” He also accused the Senate of “employing (such tactics) for the benefit of partymates sorely lagging behind the presidential surveys.”

While Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares has been closing in on Binay in the presidential surveys, it is Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II who is being propped up as his arch rival. Although he has yet to be endorsed by President Benigno Aquino III, Roxas has reportedly volunteered to become Liberal Party’s standard bearer.

“It cannot be denied that the timing of the Ombudsman’s action is geared to discredit the Vice President during this time when the survey firms are about to start with its fieldwork,” Quicho said.

He said Binay will “not be cowed” and will “intently study his legal options.” IDL