Cayetano claims Binays trying to buy damaging information against him

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—A Makati lawyer has dangled P5 million to P20 million to suppliers for information about any anomalous projects in Taguig City, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano claims.

“The lawyer is willing to give P5 to P20 million for any information of any anomalies during the time of my wife,’’ the senator said, referring to Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano.

In essence, the lawyer “is buying information’’ from two to three suppliers, he added in a telephone interview Friday.

The suppliers have refused to identify the lawyer since they also have contracts with the Makati City government, but Cayetano said he believed the lawyer is from the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay.

“Instead of answering the issues, they’re trying to discredit the people investigating them, and the irony is that Binay was always hitting GMA (former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) for using that method,’’ he said.

Binay has been skewered at the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee inquiry into anomalies that he allegedly committed while he was as mayor of Makati.

And it was his estranged ally, former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, who provided testimony and documents linking him to the anomalies.

Apart from building a P2.28-billion Makati City hall carpark, Binay has been accused of owning a P1.2-billion estate in Batangas, and recently, of owning condominium units through dummies.

The Vice President, who has twice snubbed the inquiry, has flatly denied the charges, and has dismissed the hearing as a forum to vilify him ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

In an affidavit, he questioned the subcommittee’s power to expose “for the sake of exposure.’’

Cayetano, who along with subcommittee chair Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV presided over the inquiry, doubted his critics could dredge up any anomaly against his wife.

He claimed that his wife adopted measures to make services by the IT, security and garbage companies efficient but also cheaper.

“I’m not saying that there is no corruption at all, but I can say that she will hunt down anyone who is engaging in corruption in Taguig,’’ he said.

Otherwise, Cayetano said, he could face Binay at the Makati City council, at a subcommittee hearing chaired by his daughter Sen. Nancy Binay, and even in a public debate.

“Why don’t they pass a resolution?’’ he said of the Makati council. “We’ll go there to show to the people we’re not hiding anything.’’

“The people they are saying are dirty are willing to be investigated,’’ he added.

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