Wanted: New Makati cakes supplier

SAYING he wanted to “improve and further fix” the public services offered to residents, acting Makati Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña Jr. has announced that he would be bidding out the contract to supply birthday cakes for the city’s  senior citizens.

In a recent press release sent out by his office, Peña said that it was only right for the city government to recognize the elderly for their dedicated service to the country.

“To fulfill this objective, [I have] opened the doors to those who want to … participate in [the] proper and honest process of choosing who will be the supplier…,” he added.

Earlier, Peña—who assumed office after Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay was again ordered suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman over allegations that the Makati City Science High School was overpriced—promised to continue Binay’s programs in the city, including the cake program.

Netizens, meanwhile, were quick to compare photos of two Makati birthday cakes circulating on the web.

An Instagram photo in Axel Vito Cruz’s account showed a cake supposedly distributed  while Binay was still in office. Written on it were the words “Happy Birthday, from Mayor Jun Binay” while the other cake, supposedly given after Peña took over, merely said, “Happy Birthday, from the people of Makati.” Peña’s camp, however, clarified that both cakes were given out during the time Binay was still in office.

Earlier, Peña said that he wanted to buy the cakes from known commercial bakeshops to avoid controversy since the program came under fire after lawyer Renato Bondal alleged in a Senate hearing last year that the cakes were overpriced.

The program further drew flak when a report from the Anti-Money Laundering Council said that Binay and his sisters, Sen. Nancy Binay and Rep. Abigail Binay, were among the founders of Millennium Food Chains Corp. along with Erlinda and Kim Chong.

Millennium is allegedly one of the Binays’ suspected dummy companies. The Chongs, on the other hand, own Cups & Mugs Kitchenette, listed as the supplier of Makati’s birthday cakes.

But Joey Salgado, Binay’s spokesperson, emphasized that their camp has already showed the Senate documents that proved that each cake costs “only around P300.”

“It went through open bidding and the supplier, Bakerite, is a reputable company. Bondal admitted in the Senate that he only guessed [the price of each cake]. Even if it is clear in the document that overpricing was not true, Vice Mayor Peña will stand by the lies of his companions only to malign the Binays. It is clear that this is their agenda, not to give public service,” Salgado said.

He added that the cakes given during Binay’s time had the words “from the people of Makati” on them and not the mayor’s name.

“Vice Mayor Peña is only fooling the media and those who are not residents of Makati when they claimed they were the ones who put that [on] their cakes. Please go to twitter #makaticake. That is where the cakes we have been sending over the years are,” he said. With Krixia Subingsubing