Binay quits Aquino Cabinet
Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ NINO JESUS ORBETA
VICE President Jejomar Binay has resigned from the Aquino Cabinet.
Binay tendered his irrevocable resignation on Monday as the chief of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and as the Presidential Adviser on OFW Affairs, according to the Office of the Vice President’s Media Affairs chief Joey Salgado.
Salgado said that Binay’s resignation from the Cabinet is “effective immediately.”
Binay’s daughter, Makati Rep. Abigail Binay, personally delivered the letter addressed to President Benigno Aquino III and gave it to Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Monday afternoon.
“She was accompanied by Undersecretary Benjamin Martinez Jr., chief of staff of the Vice President. Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa received the letter around 3:55 p.m. at the Office of the Executive Secretary,” Salgado said.
‘Tired of being a punching bag’
Makati Rep. Abigail Binay said that his father resigned from his Cabinet posts because he is too tired to be treated as “punching bag.”
“Alam mo na yung parang lagi ka na lang sinusuntok tapos hindi ka na lang makasuntok pabalik? Yun ho ang ibig kong sabihin na pagod. Na para siyang punching bag, hindi siya makalaban (You know the feeling that you are always being hit but you can’t hit back? That’s what I meant about him being tired. He is being treated like a punching bag and he cannot retaliate),” the lawmaker said in an interview over radio dzMM.
The younger Binay said that her father can now freely voice out his criticisms against the administration’s policies because he is not part of the Cabinet anymore.
She also said that no one pressured her father to resign.
Positive political development
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV welcomed the resignation of Vice President Jejomar Binay from the Cabinet of President Benigno Aquino III.
In a statement, Trillanes said that Binay’s resignation is “a very positive political development.”
He also said that quitting the Cabinet will mean that there will be no inconsistency in the Aquino administration’s anti-graft crusade.
“Finally! This is a very positive political development. Now, there is no more inconsistency in the ‘tuwid na daan’ slogan of the PNoy administration,” the senator said.
Trillanes is one of the accusers of the Vice President, having participated in the ongoing Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee hearings and leveled various accusations that Binay has participated in anomalous transactions.
The senator said that the Aquino administration “can now go all out against VP Binay.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Nancy Binay thanked the Filipino people for their continued support to their family despite his father’s decision to quit the Aquino Cabinet.
“Makakaasa po kayo na bibigyang halaga at iingatan ng Vice President ang pagtitiwalang ito at susuklian ng tuloy-tuloy na pagsisilbi sa taong bayan,” the younger Binay said.
‘Evil’ administration
Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice said Binay has gotten what he needed from the administration and is now free to criticize the same Cabinet he had served for five years, especially because he is sure President Aquino will not endorse him as his successor in 2016.
“I am sure he has already got what he wanted from the Aquino administration and he is now sure that he will not be endorsed by President Aquino. He will now use the administration as his punching bag and hit it to his heart’s content hoping that that this might divert the corruption issue being lodged at him,” Erice said.
The Liberal Party lawmaker said Binay is also free to gather all the opponents of President Aquino – from the allies of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos who was deposed from power and succeeded by Aquino’s mother Corazon, to the supporters of ailing former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was detained in the hospital for plunder.
“He will now gather those opposed to President Aquino, from Marcos to [Arroyo], and all those who would want the good all days of traditional politics and fight not for principles but for survival,” Erice said.
Erice had called on Binay to resign from the Cabinet, calling the Vice President two-faced for gaining out of his position while his allies denigrate the administration.
Binay handed his irrevocable resignation to Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa on Monday afternoon. In the Aquino Cabinet, he is the head of the Housing and Urban Development Commission and the presidential adviser of OFW affairs.
Binay’s resignation was announced hours after a Pulse Asia survey showed that he is the most trusted government official, beating Aquino, Senate President Franklin Drilon, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. AC
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