Binay vows to run after Duterte ‘death squad’

By: Christine O. Avendaño, Niña P. Calleja - 9 years ago

Vice President Jejomar Binay and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. FILE PHOTOS

It was the turn of Vice President Jejomar Binay on Thursday to threaten Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, one of his rivals for Malacañang, with imprisonment.

Binay vowed that if he were elected President, he would go after and punish Duterte and his so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) for extrajudicial killings in Davao, which included children and journalists.

READ: Binay to conduct probe on Davao Death Squad if elected president

The presidential standard-bearer of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance said he would form an independent commission to investigate the “summary executions and human rights violations” being blamed on Duterte and the supposed death squad.

“It’s time for DDS, along with Duterte, to answer to God and the laws of our country,” Binay said in a statement.

On the third straight day of the attack and counterattack between Binay and Duterte, now the front-runner in voter preference polls for next month’s presidential election, the Vice President did not deal with the threat of the mayor’s camp, aired on Wednesday by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, to send him to jail on corruption charges should Duterte win the election.

First ‘big fish’ in jail

“Binay would in all likelihood be the first big fish to be sent to jail with the preponderance of evidence of corruption against him during his stint as Makati mayor for more than 20 years,” Pimentel, president of Duterte’s party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), said in a statement.

READ: It’s jail for Binay, says Duterte camp

Binay, running third in the polls less than four weeks before the balloting, had for days been asking voters not to elect Duterte as President, citing the mayor’s admission that he was part of the supposed death squad and that he had killed criminals.

The Vice President accused Duterte of killing poor people, including children.

Are journalists criminals?

“If I become President, I will send to jail child killers and those who kill the poor. I will jail those killing journalists,” Binay said in his latest attack on Duterte.

READ: Binay asks public not to vote for ‘berdugo’ Duterte

The death squad has become “untouchable” because Duterte has admitted being part of it, Binay said.

He scoffed at the claim of Duterte’s camp that they only kill criminals, asking if they considered journalists critical of the mayor criminals.

“Jun Pala, Ferdy Lintuan and Rene Galope were journalists in Davao who exposed corruption and bad governance of Duterte. They were killed by DDS. In the eyes of Duterte, journalists, whom he had called ‘noisy’ and ‘talkative,’ are criminals who should be killed. Is this the kind of President that you want?” Binay said.

He assured the audience that under his presidency, Duterte and the death squad would be punished.

“But because we respect the law, we will give Mr. Duterte and DDS the chance to defend themselves,” Binay said. “We will give [them] the chance to explain to the law—something they denied to their victims.”

He said the independent commission that he planned to form to investigate the extrajudicial killings in Davao may be made up of former members of the Supreme Court, human rights groups, the National Press Club and the Commission on Human Rights.

Responding from Cebu City, Duterte said he would continue killing criminals.

“I will do it again and again,” Duterte told reporters after hearing about Binay’s statements.

Duterte said no charges had been brought against him over the supposed death squad in Davao City.

He said even former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who is now running for a Senate seat, had not brought a case against him.

Pimentel criticized

He added that when his former political rival, Prospero Nograles, brought up the extrajudicial killing of criminals in Davao City, it only helped him win the election.

“Davao City does not like criminals,” Duterte said.

Binay’s campaign spokesperson, Rico Quicho, on Thursday criticized Pimentel for being silent on the human rights charges against Duterte, and said the senator was “duping the people.”

Quicho said Pimentel continued his political persecution of Binay by chairing the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee that investigated the corruption charges against the Vice President.

But Pimentel was “sheepishly quiet” on the human rights violations committed by Duterte, he said.

It was Duterte who responded, saying: “I’d like to remind Binay that he is facing plunder cases, along with his wife. Do you want Malacañang to be filled with people accused of corruption?”

“Let’s see each other in Muntinlupa,” he said, referring to the national penitentiary.

DQ cases financier

Duterte also disclosed that he was angry with Binay because it was the Vice President who funded the disqualification cases brought against him in the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

“He funded my disqualification (DQ) cases,” he told reporters, adding that he had “A-1” information about the matter.

He said his informant was someone who worked in the government and was close to the Binays.

“I learned about it only recently,” he said, adding that he at first thought the financier was his other rival for Malacañang, Liberal Party presidential standard-bearer Mar Roxas.

Four petitions for Duterte’s disqualification from the presidential race had been filed in the Comelec, which dismissed all of them for lack of merit. TVJ