Jejomar Binay says he, too, was adopted

By: Niña P. Calleja - 9 years ago

He, too, was an adopted child.

Vice President Jejomar Binay made this disclosure on Friday in a seeming attempt to steal the thunder from Sen. Grace Poe, whose story of having been given up for adoption as a child has drawn public sympathy.

READ: VP Binay: Like Grace Poe, I was adopted

The attacks against Poe’s being a foundling and her failure to meet the 10-year residency requirement in the country to be able to run for President backfired on Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) interim president, who had earlier raised the issues. He issued an apology afterwards.

In an interview with reporters during his visit to Biliran province, Binay denied he had a hand in the issues raised by Tiangco.

“I, Jojo Binay, would mock her? That’s not a trait of Jojo Binay. I was also adopted by my uncle,” Binay said.

He went on to say that growing up, Poe was more fortunate than him as he experienced a more difficult life as a child.

“She was better off. She had a good life after she was adopted. After I was adopted, I was tasked to go to the market to collect slop (kaning baboy),” he said.

According to a published biography about Binay, the Vice President was orphaned at the age of 9. His uncle Ponciano took him under his care in Makati City.

Among Binay’s tasks at his uncle’s household were to collect slop for his uncle’s piggery, clean the front yard in the morning and look after his uncle’s fighting cocks.

“That was why Jojo Binay would never taunt those who were oppressed,” Binay said.

The Vice President, who has been facing a string of allegations of corruption when he was mayor of Makati City, insisted that he had warned Tiangco to back off from the issue of Poe’s residency.

“I told Toby, ‘Don’t make an issue about that. You know her father was a friend. She is also a friend,’” Binay said, recounting his conversation with Tiangco.

On Tuesday, Tiangco told reporters that Poe does not meet the 10-year-residency rule for those running for President and Vice President. Showing the certificate of candidacy that Poe filed in 2010, Tiangco said she is six months short of the requirement.

Poe, who has been closely trailing Binay in recent surveys, denied Tiangco’s claims, saying she has been living in the country since 2005.

Pressed for his camp’s next move, Binay said he had nothing to do with the information on Poe that has been made public.

UNA interim secretary general JV Bautista, however, questioned Poe’s being a foundling, saying “a foundling by definition is stateless.”

Poe was abandoned in a church in Jaro, Iloilo province, before she was adopted by late movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. and actress Susan Roces. A parish priest was said to have named her Grace, believing that she was a grace from God.

Asked if he would raise the issues against Poe should she decide to run for President, Binay said: “It is already out there. Let’s see what will happen.”