VP Binay camp urges audit of 3 senators’ pork

The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay demanded Tuesday that the three senators tormenting him submit an audit of their respective projects financed by the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and other congressional insertions in the spirit of transparency.

The challenge was issued by Binay’s political spokesman, Rico Quicho, to Senators Aquilino Pimentel III, Antonio Trillanes IV and Alan Peter Cayetano.

Quicho said he issued the challenge since Pimentel “has been bandying about that the ongoing Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearings on Binay are being conducted under the principle public office is a public trust.”

“Their infrastructure projects should also be audited using the Langdon and Seah Construction Cost Handbook, which they have invoked in the hearings and subsequent report,” Quicho said, referring to book used by the subcommittee in looking at the construction costs of the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building II.

Quicho also slammed Pimentel for just calling for an audit of the key shelter agencies that Binay handled when he was still the head of the House and Urban Development Coordinating Council, saying it would have been “reasonable” if the senator also sought an audit of all agencies handled by resigned officials.

Regularly audited

Replying to Quicho’s challenge, Pimentel said, “All PDAF projects are regularly audited with or without our consent.”

Trillanes said that for the nth time, he had said that his PDAF/DAP projects had been audited by the Commission on Audit.

“They are all posted on our website and anybody can access it,” Trillanes said in a text message.

He said that if Binay’s camp had any information that his office had committed any irregularity, “then they could simply expose it to the media.”

“In the meantime, they should answer the numerous allegations of corruption against them,” Trillanes said.–Christine O. Avendaño