Binay camp: Yes, we’re banana republic, but not due to SC

Rico Quicho. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay on Saturday defended the Supreme Court decision granting bail to Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, criticizing Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s view that the ruling set the state of the Philippine justice system back to that of a “banana republic.”

“The Supreme Court decision affirmed the Vice President’s belief in the fairness and impartiality of our courts,” lawyer Rico Quicho, a spokesperson for Binay, said in a statement.

Quicho said De Lima’s description of the Philippines as banana republic was correct but her premise was wrong.

“We are a banana republic not because of the Supreme Court,” Quicho said.

“This administration’s economic policies have further enriched the elite, while the rest of the country wallows in poverty. Public services are a joke,” Quicho said.

Binay’s camp once again raised the country’s transportation woes, saying the administration could not even make the Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit run on time.

“We are a banana republic because of the insensitive and inept governance that De Lima seeks to protect with a ferocity that brooks no opposition even from a coequal branch like the judiciary,” Quicho said, echoing the Vice President’s tirades against the Aquino administration.

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