Junjun Binay protests removal of ‘qualified’ officials at City Hall

Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. (left) and Vice Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña Jr. INQUIRER PHOTOS / RICHARD A. REYES

The camp of suspended Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay called the appointments of new heads at the Univer­sity of Makati (UMak) and Ospi­tal ng Makati (OsMak) by acting Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña “a purge of qualified city officials” and not a facelift.

Binay’s spokesperson Joey Salgado told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a text message that both the Makati university and public hospital have long been known “for quality and efficient management.”

“In fact OsMak is ISO certified, which means it complies with international quality standards of service and management. It was started during the time of the Vice President (Jejomar Binay) and Mayor Jun continued it. It’s not a facelift, it’s a purge of qualified city officials,” Salgado added.

Peña announced last week that he has appointed Dal­isay Brawner as of­fi­cer in charge (OIC) of the gov­ern­ment-run UMak to “spear­head needed re­forms in the uni­ver­sity.”

For OsMak, the acting mayor gave the leadership role to Dr. Danilo Anasta­cio, whom he claimed would rep­re­sent the “new lead­er­ship” tasked with the hos­pi­tal’s “facelift” and “needed re­forms.”

Through Anasta­cio, Peña “in­tends to ad­dress per­sis­tent com­plaints from res­i­dents about slow ser­vice and in­ef­fi­cient staff, among other prob­lems,” a photo release and announcement from the city read.

Salgado slammed these changes in leadership noting that Peña was not the one who chose these new appointees but former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, a known critic of the Binays and a Senate resource person on the investigations on alleged corrupt practices of Vice President Jejomar Binay and his son.

“What remains unanswered is the role of former Vice Mayor Mercado in the appointments. He is really the one choosing OICs (officers-in-charge),” added Salgado.

Binay’s spokesperson also earlier called Peña a “figurehead and a mere font” of Mercado.

“He is not in charge. The ones calling the shots at City Hall are former Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado and Engr. Mario Hechanova. These are the two ex-Makati officials who publicly admitted to their corrupt activities,” Salgado added.

Binay stepped down from his office last July 1 to serve his six-month pre­ven­tive sus­pen­sion or­der is­sued by the Of­fice of the Om­buds­man as it in­vestigated the al­legedly over­priced Makati City Science High School Build­ing.  As vice mayor, Peña took over as acting mayor. Among his first acts was the suspension of Makati’s sis­ter city agree­ments with over 600 lo­cal gov­ern­ment units across the coun­try, and a re­view of the City Hall’s ser­vice and em­ploy­ment con­tracts to get rid of ghost employees.