‘Rambotito’ Binay urges Bulacan locals to support Honasan despite coup past

UNA Presidential candidate Vice President Jejomar Binay during a campaign sortie motorcade from San Miguel, through San Ildefonso and San Rafael in Bulacan.
INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

SAN RAFAEL, Bulacan—Vice President Jejomar Binay urged a crowd of supporters here to vote for his running mate Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan III despite the latter’s history of waging failed coup attempts against the Cory Aquino administration.

During his campaign sortie here on Thursday, the presidential candidate addressed a crowd wearing blue shirts bearing his name that packed the San Rafael auditorium near the municipal hall.

Binay pleaded the crowd to vote for his vice presidential mate Honasan, with whom he said he is most comfortable being with in government should he be elected the next president.

Honasan, Binay said, would not be like the other vice presidents who wished for the president to die or step down so that he could run the country.

“Ipinakikiusap ko sa inyo, pagboto niyo sa akin, iboto niyo na rin si Greg Honasan. Kailangan ko po ng isang taong katulad ni Greg Honasan na pwede akong matulog nang mahimbing,” Binay said.

(I am asking you that when you vote for me, vote for Greg Honasan as well. I need someone like Greg Honasan. If he would be my vice president, I could sleep well.)

“Mahirap magkaroon ng vice president na araw araw eh ipapanalangin kung kailan ko papalitan yung pangulo. Pero hindi kay Greg Honasan. Yan po ay isang magandang katangian ni Greg Honasan,” Binay added.

(It is difficult to have a vice president who prays daily when he will replace the president. Greg Honasan is not like that. That is a good characteristic of Greg Honasan.)

Binay acknowledged that he and Honasan were once enemies during the administration of the late President Corazon Aquino.

A loyalist of Aquino, Binay, then Makati mayor, earned the moniker Rambotito (or Little Rambo) for donning full army gear during the coup attempts waged by rebel soldiers from Reform the Armed Forces Movement, founded by Honasan.

READ: Did you know: Honasan-led coup try vs Cory Aquino

Aquino appointed Binay as officer-in-charge of Makati just days after the Feb. 1986 Edsa people power revolt that ousted the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

“Nagsimula kaming magkagalit nito. Lagi kaming naghahanapan kaya hindi kami nagkita noong panahon ng kudeta. Pero pareho na ang aming pinaglalaban—ang maiangat ang buhay ng bawat Pilipino,” Binay said of Honasan.

(We started as enemies. We always seek each other during the coup attempts, so we didn’t see each other. But we are fighting for a similar cause—to help every Filipino rise from poverty.)

READ: Honasan says of coup past: I’m a good boy now

Binay said he needed Honasan in his Cabinet to be his anti-crime czar to resolve the country’s problem on criminality.

During the 1986 Edsa people power revolt, Honasan was the founder of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, which broke away from the martial rule. Honasan then served as the chief security of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, then Marcos’ defense minister who led the military in turning its back against the late dictator.

Besides his role in the peaceful 1986 Edsa revolt, Honasan also led a series of failed coup attempts against the administration of then President Cory Aquino which started in 1987. Honasan planned the deadliest coup attempt in Dec. 1989 when soldiers tried to attack Malacanang.

In 2006, Honasan went into hiding after he was charged for rebellion for being the alleged ringleader in the July 27, 2003 Oakwood mutiny as well as for his involvement in the foiled coup attempt against the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration in Feb. 2006 which prompted the then president to declare a national state of emergency.

His coup charges have been dismissed in 2007, just a few months after he won as senator in the May midterm elections.

Honasan first became a senator in 1995 and was reelected in 2001 and again in 2007.

According to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted Feb 5 to 7, Honasan only placed at fifth with only six percent of respondents. RAM