Jail cell as campaign platform

If the findings of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee are immediately adopted by the Office of the Ombudsman, Vice President Jojo Binay and his son, Makati Mayor Junjun, could be campaigning from their jail cells (Jojo for President and Junjun for reelection).

The Senate blue ribbon subcommittee has recommended the filing of plunder charges against the father-son tandem, as well as their alleged cohorts, in the “very clearly overpriced” construction of the Makati City Hall Building II at P2.2 billion.

The Senate body came up with the recommendation after 21 hearings on the alleged gross overpricing.

Plunder is a nonbailable offense, so Jojo and Junjun Binay would have to rely mainly on their campaign managers and rabid supporters to campaign for them.

This is presupposing that Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales will file the plunder case in the Sandiganbayan based on the evidence gathered by the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee.

This is also presupposing that the antigraft court will not be prevented by a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Supreme Court upon the petition of the father and son team.

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Vice President Jojo did not attend a single hearing of the subcommittee, saying the hearing was “politically motivated.”

On the other hand, Mayor Junjun attended one hearing but absented himself from other hearings until he was persuaded to heed the Senate’s summons on pain of being cited for contempt and jailed.

Things would have been different—probably the subcommittee wouldn’t have come up with the recommendation to file plunder charges—if the Binays were humble enough to attend the hearings to deny allegations they profited from the P2.2-billion construction cost of the building.

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The Binay duo would follow in the footsteps of former President Ferdinand Marcos if they are jailed for plunder while being tried in court.

Marcos was in jail when he reviewed for the bar examinations and became the 1939 bar topnotcher.

Marcos was convicted for the murder of his father’s political opponent; he appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court which acquitted him later.

The Binays, on the other hand, would be wooing voters from their jail cell should they be charged with plunder before the 2016 national elections.

But the comparison between the Binays and Marcos ends there.

Marcos, whom Jojo Binay hated so much, was charged with murder and was acquitted after he argued his case and.

The Binays would be charged with plunder with what appears to be overwhelming evidence against them.