Team PNoy: Binays not above the law

MANILA, Philippines - The Team PNoy coalition yesterday denied the Aquino administration is harassing members of Vice President Jejomar Binay’s family.

Team PNoy spokesman Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said immigration officers who barred Binay’s wife Elenita from joining her husband in his trip to the Vatican last Tuesday were just doing their job and did not in any way harass the Vice President or Mrs. Binay.

“There is a hold-departure order from the Sandiganbayan preventing Mrs. Binay from leaving the country because she is facing graft charges before the anti-graft court. The immigration people were just following the Sandiganbayan order,” Evardone said.

He said the Vice President’s wife should not have expected immigration officers to ignore the Sandiganbayan order just because she was accompanying her husband.

“The Vice President and members of his family are not above the law. No one is, not even President Aquino, who had to apply for a permit from the Commission on Elections for his personal gun because of the election-related gun ban,” he said.

Binay’s daughter Nancy, a senatorial candidate of the vice president’s United Nationalist Alliance, complained that her mother was harassed at the airport when she was briefly prevented from joining her father.

It took a call from a fuming Vice President Binay to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to clear Mrs. Binay through immigration. It was not clear whether the Vice President’s wife had obtained a travel clearance from the Sandiganbayan, where she is facing charges in connection with irregularities in the purchase of fixtures and furniture when she was Makati City mayor.

The Vice President insisted that his wife accompany him, causing a 15-minute delay in the Emirates flight that they took.

Bureau of Immigration spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang confirmed in a text message to The STAR that De Lima allowed Mrs. Binay to travel despite the HDO against her.

“BI commissioner requested for instruction/clearance from Secretary De Lima on the departure of Mrs. Binay. Sec. De Lima gave him clearance to allow Mrs. Binay to depart,” she said.

Earlier, Evardone denied the Vice President’s claim that personalities or groups identified with the Aquino administration have mounted a demolition job against him.

For her part, former senator and Team PNoy senatorial candidate Jamby Madrigal said Nancy Binay should not have cried harassment over the immigration officers’ decision not to clear her mother’s travel because of the Sandiganbayan hold-departure order.

Madrigal said Nancy should not expect “special treatment and privileges for her mother, just because she is the wife of the vice president.”

“For one who wants to become a lawmaker, she should be the last to say that. Just because she is the wife of the Vice President, why should she be given special privileges? This smacks of elitism on the part of Nancy Binay,” she said.

Madrigal said if Mrs. Binay was not able to present a travel clearance from the Sandiganbayan, De Lima should not have cleared her for travel.

The justice secretary could face charges for disregarding a lawful order of the anti-graft court, she added.

“Only the Sandiganbayan has the authority to lift a hold-departure order on a respondent in a graft case. Perhaps Secretary De Lima should explain whether she exceeded her authority when she got herself involved in a judicial matter overruling a hold departure order of the Sandiganbayan,” Madrigal said.

Nancy, for her part, merely laughed off the claims made by Madrigal.

“How can I be an elitist since my surname is not like a Madrigal and I also eat galunggong as everyone else,” she said.

Nancy appealed to Madrigal not to use the issue of the delay of the departure of her mother to the Vatican to get media coverage. She said the statements made by Madrigal were “unfortunate, since they were not supported by facts.”

Aquino’s cousin Bam Aquino, former senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and former censors chief Grace Poe Llamanzares said De Lima should have followed the anti-graft court’s hold departure order on Mrs. Binay.

“I think it should be a court decision. It has to be the court,” Magsaysay said.

“I think the authority is the court, and it is the court that should really decide on the matter,” Poe added.

Mrs. Binay has a pending criminal case – No. 06-CRN-0469 (People of the Philippines vs. Elenita Binay et al) – before the Sandiganbayan 5th Division, which was why she was prevented from leaving the country. - Wih Delon Porcalla, Jose Rodel Clapano