A Liberal partymate of President Benigno Aquino III in Congress called the scathing speech of Vice President Jejomar Binay full of air as the ally turned opposition leader trained his guns on the current administration and accused it of selective justice.
In an interview on Wednesday, Caloocan Representative Edgar Erice called Binay’s speech “hollow” and “ampaw.”
“He did not answer the allegations against him and I don’t get it,” Erice, Binay’s most vocal critic in the House of Representatives, said.
Erice hit Binay for having no debt of gratitude for criticizing the administration even while he benefitted from it as chief of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the Presidential Adviser on OFW Affairs.
“Wala siyang utang na loob kay Pangulong Aquino, who appointed him to (HUDCC) kahit hindi siya kakampi ng mga Liberal. But what did he do? He used the agency for his presidential ambitions,” Erice said.
Erice also questioned Binay’s motives in criticizing the administration over the corruption allegations involving Aquino’s economic stimulus package, the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP, the now defunct pork barrel Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF), among others only now when he had served in Aquino’s Cabinet for five years before his irrevocable resignation.
In his nationally televised speech at the Coconut Palace on Wednesday, Binay accused the administration of sparing allies who are also embroiled in corruption scandals.
“Ngayon, sa ilalim ng kasalukuyang administrasyon, ako ay pinagkaisahang siraan, hamakin, gipitin, tanggalin bilang pangalawang pangulo at ipakulong pa… At habang ako at ang aking pamilya ay ginigipit at inuusig, hinahayaan naman nila ang malawakang anomalya ng kanilang mga kasama at kapartido,” Binay said.
Calling the administration “palpak (blundering)” and “manhid (numb or uncaring),” Binay also said he would not be backing out of the 2016 presidential race despite the threat of graft complaints against him over the alleged overpriced Makati Parking Building, the Makati Science Building, among other purported anomalies in the infrastructure projects of Makati when he was mayor.
“Sa mga kalaban ko sa pulitika, sinasabi ko sa inyo ngayon: kung ang layunin ninyo ay paatrasin ako sa pagtakbo bilang pangulo sa 2016, nagkakamali kayo. Hindi ako umaatras sa laban,” Binay said.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, for his part, questioned why Binay took so long in the Aquino Cabinet if he had been harboring ill feelings all this time.
“He should have resigned much earlier.Why did he remain for so long?” Belmonte said.
You Against Crime and Corruption (YACAP) Rep. Carol Jane Lopez took on a lighter note and said of Binay’s speech: “Eh di wow. Push nya yan.”