Palace to UNA, Binay: Who’s campaigning?

“Who’s campaigning?” Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Wednesday when asked to react to accusations that the Liberal Party has been using government funds for early campaigning.

In earlier reports, Navotas City Representative Toby Tiangco claimed that P581 billion from the national budget was being used by the administration party for pet projects. The said projects are supposed to help the group garner votes instead of helping the poor.

Tiangco is the interim president of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), which will field Vice President Jejomar Binay in the 2016 elections.

“We are committed to transparency,” Lacierda said. “Our budget is posted on gov.ph.”

He said their critics could easily check if government funds were being used properly – by comparing the fund usage against the posted 2015 budget.

“It’s not very difficult for him to provide us details if such funding are being used for campaign,” he said.

Binay, in an interview in Antipolo City on Wednesday, said there are other people claiming that LP now has its own “war chest.”

But Lacierda said the administration is busy working. “Who’s campaigning?” he said.

“What [the opposition] considers campaigning, we consider as working for the continuity of daang matuwid (straight path),” Lacierda said before enumerating the government’s projects on poverty alleviation.

“We are focused on people, that’s where we have CCT beneficiaries. We are focused on education, that’s why we have K+12. We are building more classrooms. We don’t have a backlog of classrooms anymore. We have constructed more than 66,000 classrooms. We invested in health, that’s why we have PhilHealth,” he added.

Lacierda explained that if other people see Cabinet members visiting the provinces, it only means that they are doing their job.

“If Secretary Mar Roxas distributes patrol jeeps as part of his mandate to modernize the PNP (Philippine National Police) as well, is that campaigning?” he asked.

Roxas is the perceived to be the standard bearer of LP in 2016. However, he has not been doing well in electoral surveys.

Asked if it is time for Binay to resign as Cabinet member, Lacierda said it is a “political question that he must resolve by himself and his camp.”