Former Vice President Jejomar Binay and his son, former Makati Mayor Junjun Binay. —INQUIRER PHOTO
Former Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay and his son, dismissed Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay, were charged on Friday with graft and falsification in connection with the procurement of the P1.3-billion Makati Science High School building.
Ombudsman prosecutors filed four counts of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and three counts of falsification against the Binays in the Sandiganbayan.
The charges against the Binays are bailable. But if convicted, they face penalties of six to 10 years imprisonment for each count of graft and six to eight years for each count of falsification.
Records showed that Makati City officials allegedly forged documents to make it appear there were other bidders who competed for the separate engineering and construction contracts awarded to Infiniti Architectural Works and Hilmarc’s Construction Corp.
Separate cases
The architectural and engineering contract was worth P17.37 million, while the six construction phases amounted to P1.33 billion.
The Binays are facing separate cases for graft and falsification before the antigraft court’s Third Division in connection with the P2.2-billion Makati City Hall car park project.
“The Ombudsman [Conchita Carpio Morales] clearly intends to spend her remaining months in office pursuing her obsession to prosecute former VP Jojo Binay and former Mayor Junjun Binay on false and baseless charges,” said Joey Salgado, the former Vice President’s spokesperson.
“In contrast, she has been less enthusiastic in probing the complaints against officials and personalities of the previous administration. This once again displays the hypocrisy and selective justice of the Ombudsman,” he added.
Salgado said they were looking forward to proving the Binays’ innocence in an impartial tribunal. “They will show that these cases are part of the political persecution of a biased Ombudsman,” he said.