Turn PH into next Makati? Please don’t, Roxas tells Binay

MANDAUE, Cebu—Don’t make the Philippines the next Makati, please!

Liberal Party standard-bearer Mar Roxas made this mock appeal on Friday to rival candidate Vice President Jejomar Binay who has been implicated in corruption and financial irregularities in Makati during his decades-long stint as its mayor.

“Vice President Binay, you said you will duplicate in the entire Philippines what you did in Makati. Please don’t,” Roxas said in an interview with reporters here.

“It would be a tragedy if you were to steal from the Philippines in the same way that you stole from Makati. The country’s poor will become poorer. Please don’t do that,” Roxas continued.

Roxas attended a dialogue with workers of a furniture factory here while on a two-day campaign sortie in Cebu.

He made the statement after Binay took a jab at him for his supposed failure to solve the problematic Metro Rail Transit system when he was the transportation secretary.

Binay, who served as mayor of Makati for nearly two decades, has been touting to voters the economic progress in Makati, which hosts the country’s main financial district, as a trophy of his brand of leadership.

His rule in Makati, however, has been marred by various issues linking him, his wife Elenita and their son Junjun, who both succeeded him as mayor, to the alleged plunder of billions of pesos in city funds.

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According to Roxas, the Vice President has been resorting to mudslinging to deflect attention from the corruption issues hounding Binay and members of his family.

He said Binay should explain why the city government of Makati paid P550,000 for a hospital bed worth only P35,000 and P16,000 for a sterilizer equipment.

“That’s what our countrymen are asking,” he said.

Binay has repeatedly dismissed the string of corruption allegations against him and his family, saying these had been concocted to derail his presidential bid.

The Office of the Ombudsman has found probable cause to pursue administrative and criminal cases against Binay in connection with the controversial construction of the P2.3 billion Makati City Hall Building II.

But, being an impeachable official, Binay enjoys immunity from suit as long as he is Vice President, the Ombudsman has conceded.  TVJ

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