Binay camp: Don’t drag Pag-IBIG into alleged corruption mess
A SPOKESPERSON of Vice President Jejomar Binay has appealed to the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing the alleged corrupt practices committed by the vice president not to drag the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG) into the controversy.
In a statement, Binay’s spokesperson Joey Salgado expressed fear that the Senate probe will only tarnish Pag-IBIG’s reputation.
Salgado said Pag-IBIG Fund is “one of the best performing and honest government-owned and -controlled corporations.”
“We hope that Pag-IBIG Fund be allowed to do its work. To continue to drag Pag-IBIG Fund is not good for the government because it is one of the best performing and honest GOCCs; it is not good for the civil service because honest public officials are not spared; it is not good for the housing industry because it affects the perception on its single largest funder,” Salgado said on Sunday.
He said that Monday’s hearing will invite Pag-IBIG President Atty. Darlene Berberabe for the fifth time despite the fact that Senator Antonio Trillanes IV failed to show any evidence that Pag-IBIG Fund is awarding projects to contractors related to Binay.
Last January, Trillanes said that Binay used his power to force Pag-IBIG to get the services of a security agency he allegedly owns through dummies.
It was also alleged that Berberabe got the post because she was the sister-in-law of the vice president’s chief of staff and that he was appointed following Binay’s recommendation.
During the Senate’s corruption hearings, the Pag-IBIG Fund allegedly filed trumped-up charges against real estate developer Delfin Lee after he failed to give P200 million to Binay. Lee is currently facing nonbailable syndicated estafa charges.
“The supposed anomaly has been alleged as early as January. Until now, Senator Trillanes has yet to show a single shred of evidence,” Salgado added.
He also hit Trillanes for prioritizing the “demolition job” against Binay despite the onslaught of typhoon “Dodong” in northern Luzon.
“We have a major typhoon threatening lives and property in Luzon yet Senator Trillanes chooses to indulge himself in his demolition job against the vice president,” he said.
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