Peña closes Makati Friendship Suites
Acting Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC
Aside from suspending Makati’s sister-city agreements with 670 local government units (LGUs) nationwide, acting Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña announced on Tuesday that he was also temporarily shutting down their “home in the city”—the Makati Friendship suites—pending a comprehensive audit.
“The controversy generated by the Makati Friendship Suites merits a serious review of the said program. I am confident that our partner LGUs will understand. I believe that by doing this, the city will not only serve the interest of truth and accountability, it will also strengthen its ties with its partner local government organizations based on the common pursuit of good governance and not patronage politics,” Peña said.
According to the acting mayor, Makati has the biggest number of sister city agreements at 670 compared to other big cities like Quezon City which has only 19. Manila, on the other hand, has 40 while Davao City has 10.
READ: Peña orders probe on Makati’s hundreds of ‘sisters’
Peña said that an audit of the sister city program was needed to check if Makati’s resources were being spent wisely and if some of these funds could be freed to “further improve services and benefits” for residents.
“It is laudable that Makati has forged partnerships with many other cities. However, the city must not neglect its basic relationship with the people,” he added.
“The people of Makati deserve better. They deserve better social service programs from the local government. I believe that if the money of a local government unit is used in the right way, many people will benefit from the services it offers,” he said.
As for the Makati Friendship Suites where officials from sister cities are accommodated whenever they visit the city, Peña explained that they were planning to limit its use to residents.
According to him, the three five-story buildings could be used as an evacuation site during calamities although he clarified that this was still under study.
A reservations agent at the hotel who refused to be identified confirmed that they had stopped accepting visitors although he added that they were still waiting for a formal directive from the city government.
Sought for a reaction, Joey Salgado, the spokesperson of suspended Makati Mayor Junjun Binay, called Peña “a figurehead, a mere font.”
“He is not in charge. The ones calling the shots at city hall are former Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado and engineer Mario Hechanova. These are the two ex-Makati officials who publicly admitted their corrupt activities,” Salgado said in a text message.
He added that they have received information that Mercado has been offering appointments at city hall to people close to him while Hechanova was “lording it over the city’s General Services Department” which he previously led.
The two have accused Binay’s father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, of amassing millions of pesos in kickbacks from various city government projects in Senate hearings.
According to another whistleblower, former Makati barangay chair Renato Bondal, then Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay earned a P1-billion kickback from two housing projects—one in the city which later became the friendship suites and the other in Calauan, Laguna.
Bondal said the city government bought the friendship suites to turn it into a housing project for the poor only to transform it into a hotel.
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