The gloves are off.
Now free from the Palace’s clutches, Vice President Jejomar Binay on spewed fire at the Aquino administration, calling it manhid at palpak (insensitive and bumbling).
READ: Binay calls Aquino admin ‘uncaring,’ ‘blundering’
Speaking in a television address two days after he resigned from the Cabinet of President Benigno Aquino III, Binay accused the Aquino administration of committing sins against him and the people, and vowed he would fight for an effective government responding to the needs of the nation.
“Ito ang aking ipinaglalaban. Ito rin ang hangarin ng ating mga kababayan: isang pamahalaang kabaliktaran ng manhid at palpak na pamahalaan ngayon’ (This is what I am fighting for. This is what our countrymen desire: a government that is the opposite of the insensitive and bumbling government that we have today),” said Binay, who made it clear he will gun for the presidency in 2016 despite attempts of administration allies to stop him.
He spoke in Filipino. At the end of his address, the Vice President turned around without talking to reporters, who were told in advance he was not fielding questions from them.
It was the first time Binay spoke to the public two days after he quit the Cabinet with a reportedly one-sentence resignation letter to President Aquino but without explanation.
READ: Binay quits Aquino Cabinet
I’ll not back down’
“Today marks the beginning of our fight against poverty,” Binay said. “To my political opponents, I am telling you now: If your objective is to make me back down from running for President in in 2016, you are mistaken; I will not back down.”
On Monday, Binay handed his “irrevocable” resignation as presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers and head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council. His daughter, Makati Rep. Abigail Binay, told reporters his father was through being the “punching bag” of administration allies in Congress.
The Vice President, who is facing charges of corruption in connection with the allegedly overpriced Makati parking lot building and science high school when he was Makati mayor, said he was taking over the opposition whose main stalwarts—Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr.—had been detained for alleged misuse of their pork barrel allocations.
Binay’s family came out in full support. His wife, Dr. Elenita Binay and children—Sen. Nancy, Rep. Abigail and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin Jr. were among the crowd of supporters that packed the room in the bayside Coconut Palace, where the Vice President held office.
Also present were his political aides—Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla, Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco, Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza and former House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella.
Asked whether he thought Binay was referring to the President personally when he slammed his government’s incompetence and insensitivity, Atienza told the Inquirer that Binay did not mention Mr. Aquino but stated that the “real problem” was the administration.
Binay said he resigned from the Cabinet because he could no longer allow the vilification attacks against the programs of government he had started in Makati City when he was mayor and which he wanted to implement all over the country.
Selective justice
He slammed “selective justice” under the Aquino administration and said he would not allow only a few friends and allies to reap the benefits of development.
Saying he had been quietly doing his work in the Cabinet for the past five years as head of the government housing programs and responding to the needs of overseas Filipino workers, Binay said that he had gone around the country and their common concern was that they never felt the progress that the administration has been harking about.
And while he said he had always fought past battles he faced during martial law and after the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, he said he had also faced battles within the Aquino administration.
He said that under the Aquino administration, he and his family had become the object of scorn and threatened with arrests to get him out of the way of those seeking political power.
And while he said he and his family were being pressured and persecuted, the administration was just allowing its allies and party mates to commit widespread anomalies.
Binay mentioned the Disbursement Acceleration Program, the Priority Development Assistance Fund of their party mates and friends, the alleged extortion from the Metro Railway Transit and the massacre of 44 members of the Special Action Forces.
Crooked governance
He said the administration did not prosecute officials who stopped the release of the 2013 internal revenue allotment of local governments when it knew that many of the cities and barangays were depending on the IRA.
“This is crooked justice and governance. What is prevailing is selective justice,” he said.
He said administration allies and friends had a different brand of justice and benefits and nothing for the poor.
“There is a limit to the patience of a man. Enough is enough (Sobra na, tama na). Why don’t they face me in a clean election?”
Binay warned that many of the administration allies who would run in 2016 had no chance of winning in a clean and fair elections and would resort to lies, violate the law, and spend the money of the nation.
The Vice President also thanked his supporters who continued to trust him as shown in latest surveys, despite the vilification campaign against him.
He also told the poor he could take whatever dirt his opponents would throw at him but that he could not bear to see continued poverty.
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