And so, finally, Vice President Jejomar Binay broke his silence and addressed the nation to air his side on the controversies surrounding him.
It was pretty much an “I did not do anything wrong and this is all politics” statement without the big bang everyone wanted to hear.
He justified the cost of the controversial Makati building that Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes III are investigating by claiming that the issue being used to discredit him as a future presidential frontrunner.
If we are to believe Binay, all expenses incurred in building the Makati City Hall Building 2 had been approved and certified by the Commission on Audit. Therefore, it is legal and above board.
That is not to say that the COA has been beyond reproach, but that is another matter for a future discussion.
The thing is, all accusations against Binay and his family have been exactly what he claimed them to be: just hearsay.
I have heard all the rumors—that he demands a sizeable unit in every new building or gets a a cut from every business deal.
They are not new. None of them are. Accusations have been hurled at him since he sat down as OIC of Makati in 1986. First by the Marcos loyalists, then the Cory naysayers, then the FVR functionaries and, of course, GMA’s lackeys.
All of them wanted Makati for the simple reason that it is the biggest earning city and the business center of the Philippines.
I don’t doubt that quite a number of those accusations are true. I actually abhor the arrogance of the Binay children, particularly his son Junjun.
Demanding that they be exempt from most security rules of Metro Manila is a big scar on the campaign of Binay for good governance.
Remember the VP’s insistence that he can use his wangwang and escorts despite the order of the President to stop this practice?
Or that Dasma gate fiasco where Junjun Binay accosted a security guard who was only doing his job and then had the Dasma association fire the security agency that handled the guards?
Or the insistence of the wife of Binay to leave the country despite a hold departure order?
But these are not crimes against the law but only against propriety. We may have proved the Binays are a bunch of arrogant fools, but we have not established any crime they have committed.
And therein lies his defense. That all these brouhaha against him is politically motivated, aired for public viewing and judgement and does not carry the weight of any court of law.
Why the circus in the Senate when an actual case has been filed by the Ombudsman at the Sandiganbayan?
Why the “crystal ball” evidence, as Cavite Jonvic Remulla puts it, presented to the Senate hearing when documents are available and are already at the Sandiganbayan?
Why?
Because the two senators have an agenda and it is to run for higher office. Not one of them, neither Cayetano or Trillanes, have bothered to deny this.
They want to do to Binay what Miriam Defensor Santiago did to Manny Villar in 2010 using the C5 Extension project in Las Pinas.
What they forget was that the main ingredient in Miriam’s success was that she was not running for higher office. She was just her silly crusading self. That put the nail on Villar’s political coffin.
In Binay’s case, Cayetano and Trillanes are only succeeding in turning the VP into an underdog, a role every Filipino voter loves.
And that will give a bigger chance for Binay to sit in the palace by the river unless these guys get their act together.
Because, in a choice of lesser evil, people are beginning to think Binay is the lighter option.
Having said that, God bless the Philippines.
Screengrab from a TV appearance
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