Palace lashes back at Binay camp: Maybe it’s time to improve your script

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ JOAN BONDOC

A Palace spokesperson launched a counteroffensive against Vice President Jejomar Binay’s camp which claimed that the corruption allegations hurled against him are politically-motivated.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda advised the Binay camp to “improve its script” following the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee’s report which recommended the filing of plunder charges against the vice president and other personalities involved in the alleged overpriced construction of the Makati City Hall Building II.

READ: Less than 4 months before polls, Senate resumes Binay probe

“Now that the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has forwarded its report to the Ombudsman on corruption allegations against you, siguro naman ang sagot nyo hindi na ‘pulitika lang yan (perhaps you will say that (charges) are not politically-motivated). ‘ Baka gusto ninyo improve ang script nyo (Maybe it’s time to improve your script),” Lacierda said in a statement.

According to the said Senate report, there was a “grand conspiracy to milk the construction of the Makati City Hall II parking building for every peso that it could yield, through massive unmitigated overpricing.”

READ: Highlights of partial blue ribbon subcommittee report

Furthermore, the Palace official scored Atty. Rico Quicho, Binay’s spokesperson, for the supposed failure of President Benigno Aquino III’s administration to solve poverty.

Lacierda said that through the administration’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, poverty incidence in the Philippines has been reduced.

READ: Partial panel report on Binay corruption probe submitted to Senate plenary

“As usual, either huli sa balita or nagmamang maangan si VP Binay (VP Binay does not keep up on news or is just playing dumb) in his refusal to believe that because of CCT, almost 1.5 CCT families or over 7.7 million Filipinos have been lifted out of poverty. Because of this development, NEDA (National Economic Development Authority) projects from what used to be our poverty incidence of 26.3 percent in 2009, it will be between 18 to 20 percent for 2016,” he said.

READ: After 25 hearings, Senate panel says it’s done probing Binay

Lacierda also did not mince words when he slammed Binay for supposedly being absent from the anti-poverty programs of the administration before he decided to resign from the Cabinet in June last year.

Binay, who served as presidential adviser for overseas Filipino workers affairs and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chairman, has since became Aquino’s staunchest critic.

“Mr. Vice President, while the government was addressing poverty, where have you been in the last five years before you started attacking the president?” Lacierda said. RAM