Binay spox to Aquino: VP’s eyesight clear, sees rampant poverty

Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ NIñO JESUS ORBETA

Vice President Jejomar Binay’s spokesperson on Tuesday said the opposition leader does not need to get his eyes checked since he can clearly see what is happening in the country.

Rico Quicho, spokesperson for political affairs of the Office of the Vice President, was responding to President Benigno Aquino III’s comment on Monday that Binay probably needs new glasses.

READ: President twits Binay: See your eye doctor

“With all due respect to our President, malinaw po ang paningin ni Vice President Binay. Malinaw n’yang nakikita tuwing iikot sya sa Pilipinas na laganap pa rin ang gutom at kahirapan,” Quicho said.

(With all due respect to our President, Vice President Binay’s eyesight is clear. He can clearly see, when he goes around the Philippines, that hunger and poverty are still widespread.)

The spokesperson said many Filipinos have been neglected by the administration.

He pointed out that the President only mentioned funds allotted for infrastructure projects in Cebu but that the projects have yet to be completed.

Quicho also accused the President’s party, Liberal Party, of having “second-class citizens.”

Without mentioning an amount or allotted funds, he accused Aquino of neglecting Cebu as compared with Iloilo, which is the bailiwick of LP stalwart and Senate President Franklin Drilon, and with Batanes, the province of Budget Secretary Butch Abad.

“Ang Cebu, nagkataong premier city at premier province, pero pinabayaan kahit na LP ang nakaupo sa provincial government. Ibig sabihin, kahit sa LP may second-class citizens at mayroong mga tunay na pinagpala. ‘Yan ang malinaw,” he said.

(Cebu is a premier city and premier province but it has been neglected even if an LP member heads the provincial government. That means, even in LP there are second-class citizens and there are those who are truly blessed. That is clear.)

Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III is an LP member.

The Aquino and Binay camps have been trading barbs since the Vice President resigned from the Cabinet. In his speech days after his resignation, he described the Aquino administration as insensitive and inept.

Despite this, he continues to claim that he remains friends with the President. Binay, who will run for President in 2016, has had close ties with the Aquino family since he was appointed officer-in-charge of Makati by former president Corazon Aquino following the fall of the Marcos dictatorship. IDL

READ: Amid word war, Binay still considers Aquino a friend