Binay, Gringo skip Edsa rites

TIAONG, Quezon—Vice President Jejomar Binay and Sen. Gregorio Honasan, two key personalities in the 1986 Edsa revolt, Thursday opted to stay away from the commemorative rites of the Edsa People Power Revolution that toppled strongman Ferdinand Marcos 30 years ago.

Binay, who is running for President under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), and  his running mate, Honasan,  instead spent the day campaigning in Quezon province.

“Instead of joining people and groups, most of them, if we recall, were not there in 1986, I and our next President (referring to Binay) chose to be with you today,” Honasan, one of the leaders of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), told residents at the town’s gymnasium on Thursday.

 ‘I am here’

The Inquirer tried to get Binay’s explanation on his absence at the Edsa anniversary rites but he only smiled and replied: “Because I am here [in Tiaong].”

During the Edsa anniversary rites last year, Binay was told to leave the group of President Aquino and Cabinet members, who were on stage during the wreath-laying ceremony at the People Power Monument in Quezon City.

But Binay told reporters not to make a controversy out of that incident.

Binay arrived here at 10:30 a.m. with former Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, an ally of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Members of the Suarez family in Quezon have promised to campaign for Binay and UNA candidates.

In his speech in Tiaong Thursday, Binay blasted the Aquino administration for its supposed failure to deliver on the promises of the 1986 bloodless revolution.

Binay urged Filipinos to remember the ideals of Edsa and examine its relevance. “This is sad but I must say that the people who led us, especially this administration, have not shown any compassion for the poor,” Binay said.

He cited the unreturned multibillion-peso coconut levy fund as one of the causes of poverty of Quezon residents, mostly coconut farmers.

Why you are poor

“Where have all the earnings of coconut plantations in this province gone? You did not enjoy the money you saved, the coconut levy, and use this to improve your lives due to poor governance. That’s the reason why many of you are poor,” he said.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government earlier estimated the coco levy assets to be worth about P83 to P73 billion in cash (representing liquidated shares from food giant San Miguel Corp.) and P10 billion in shares of stock in United Coconut Planters Bank and  the coconut oil mills operated by the Coconut Industry Investment Fund.

In his speech, Honasan introduced Binay as one of the pillars of the Movement of Attorneys for Brotherhood, Integrity and Nationalism Inc. (Mabini), a group of lawyers that included former Senators Lorenzo Tañada, Wigberto Tañada, Rene Saguisag and Joker Arroyo that fought the Marcos dictatorship.

“Even before People Power, the next President was already in the streets as a human rights lawyer defending victims of abuses,” Honasan said.