Binay tells PDI: Get facts straight

Vice President Jejomar Binay: Check your facts. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines–Vice President Jejomar Binay on Monday gave reporters a lecture on responsible journalism as he took exception to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report revealing real property declarations that listed him as the administrator of four lots in Dingalan, Aurora, totaling more than 2 hectares.

“I appeal to you to check your facts,” Binay told the Inquirer in Filipino.

Speaking to reporters after a tour of public markets in Makati, Binay said the documents that were assessed between Aug. 5 and 9, 2011, did not say he owned the properties in Barangay Matawe, a village in the province of Aurora. The documents only bore his name.

The Vice President, invoking “God and the people,” said he did not know the “person” named in the tax declaration for the properties.

The Inquirer report referred to four persons listed as owners of the four lots as identified in the tax declaration.

Binay said he was named an administrator in the documents.

This developed as Binay’s office released a copy of the affidavit he submitted to the Senate blue ribbon committee on Nov. 6, explaining why he was not attending its hearings.

Binay told reporters the affidavit was his “explanation about the whole circus that’s happening.”

“The submission of that affidavit is actually a reiteration of what I’ve been saying,” he said.

Binay channels Neri

In the eight-page affidavit, Binay invoked the Supreme Court ruling on the case of former National Economic and Development Authority Director General Romulo Neri in explaining why he could not face the Senate blue ribbon committee investigating corruption allegations against him.

Neri had asked the high court in 2008 to stop the Senate from compelling him to answer certain questions regarding the aborted $329-million broadband deal with China’s ZTE Corp. The high court had affirmed then President Gloria Arroyo’s invocation of executive privilege in Neri’s case.

Binay said the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee, which is conducting the ongoing hearings, “was used and continues to be used to prosecute and judge me and my family on malicious and unfounded criminal accusations in utter disregard of our Constitutional rights.”

Binay also denied that the Makati City Hall building annex was overpriced and said the bidding and procurement processes were above board.–Christine O. Avendaño