‘Binay wants to face Senate’

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Jejomar Binay wants to face the Senate tomorrow to answer accusations that he amassed illegal wealth even as his allies are trying to dissuade him from doing so, Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco said yesterday.

Tiangco, who is interim president of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), also told ANC News that Binay is not quitting his Cabinet job despite President Aquino’s statement that the Vice President  is free to leave if he does not like the way the government is being run.

“He is not quitting. He cannot turn his back on people who expect help from him, like those who need housing,” Tiangco said.

In Boy Scout uniform, Binay met yesterday afternoon with Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo and other religious leaders at the Arzobispado in Intramuros but made no public statement after the meeting.

Binay is in charge of the administration’s housing and overseas workers’ concerns. Liberal Party (LP) lawmakers have accused him of straddling both sides of the political fence by criticizing the Aquino administration yet hanging on to his Cabinet post.

Asked about Binay’s attendance in the Senate probe, Tiangco said: “As of last night when we parted ways, he is attending, although we have been dissuading him from going there.”

He said the Vice President was raring to answer the illegal wealth allegations against him as well as the alleged overpricing of the Makati parking building that was constructed during his time as mayor.

“I am scheduled to meet with him again today to convince him to change his mind. We have been telling him that he should not be making decisions, and like in the United States, he should let his campaign team make the decisions for him,” Tiangco added.

When reminded that the beleaguered Vice President had told the media that he would attend the Senate investigation only upon invitation from the mother Blue Ribbon Committee, Tiangco said, “I think he did not say that.”

It is the mother committee which has invited Binay to its hearing tomorrow.

Tiangco revealed that he and his team have been telling their principal not to answer the allegations aired against him in the Senate by former Makati officials led by former vice mayor Ernesto Mercado and by Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV.

“I was against that press conference VP Binay held at the Coconut Palace, where he first responded to those accusations,” he said.

He was referring to a media gathering organized by the Vice President’s handlers, where Binay read a prepared statement but refused to answer questions.

“I told him that if we started responding, there would be no end to it. The elections in 2016 will be over and we are still explaining,” Tiangco said.

Instead of explaining himself, he said the Vice President should tell the people his accomplishments.

He pointed out that in one of their meetings, he cited the example of defeated senatorial candidate Jack Enrile, who was initially among the 12 frontrunners but later fell in the surveys and failed to recover.

“In Jack’s case, he wasted his time explaining his side in a case that took place 30 years ago,” he said.

He said Binay would gain nothing if he attends tomorrow’s Senate investigation and if he makes good his challenge to debate with Trillanes.

He said people who don’t want to believe the Vice President would not believe him whatever he says, while his supporters would stick it out with him.

He said they hope to convince more voters to support Binay by harping on his accomplishments.

“If we lose voters, it’s not because we did not respond to bad news. It’s because we failed to present more good news,” he added.

No word from VP himself

The Senate Blue Ribbon committee is willing to wait until today for the Vice President to confirm his attendance tomorrow, committee chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III said. He said the committee sent its official invitation to Binay last Oct.29.

“Still waiting for word, official word. Unless I get official word, I don’t want to say anything,” Guingona told reporters yesterday.

If the Vice President fails to respond to the invitation today, Guingona said the hearing would no longer push through.

But the Blue Ribbon sub-committee’s scheduled hearing on the allegedly overpriced Makati City parking building would definitely push through if Binay snubs the mother committee.

Guingona reiterated his assurance to the Vice President that he would be extended courtesy befitting his office and that he would be given all the time he needs to say his piece if ever he decides to attend tomorrow’s hearing.

He promised to ensure that proper decorum is observed, especially by his colleagues accused by the Binay camp of bullying its resource persons.

But Guingona said the Vice President would have to answer questions from the members of the Blue Ribbon Committee and not simply read a prepared statement.

He said that this would be a good opportunity for the Vice President to air his side on allegations raised against him.

Meeting with bishops

Neither Binay’s camp nor the bishops gave details of their two-and-a-half-hour meeting yesterday but a source said the Vice President discussed the government’s housing projects and provided the prelates with a five-page statement explaining the allegations of corruption against him.

earing a Boy Scout uniform, Binay arrived at the Arzobispado de Manila in Intramuros, Manila at around 2:10 p.m. It was Binay who had requested for an audience with Pabillo.

Prior to the meeting, Binay attended an event of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines-Luzon Jamboree in Marikina City. Binay is the national president of the BSP.

Pabillo, chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, was with an unnamed priest and members of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines during the meeting with Binay.

The Vice President, during the meeting, was said to have decried the Senate investigation into his alleged ill-gotten wealth, which he said was meant to malign his name.

Binay also defended his decision to snub the sub-committee hearings, saying he does not want to dignify such kind of proceedings.

The Office of the Vice President on Monday sent to the media an advisory about Binay’s meeting with members of the CBCP. Pabillo had wanted to keep the meeting secret.

But after the meeting, the Vice President immediately got into his SUV and left with a convoy without speaking to reporters who were waiting for him outside the Arzobispado de Manila.

Last Oct.24, Pabillo also had a closed door meeting with some former Makati officials, including former vice mayor Ernesto Mercado, who accused Binay of amassing ill-gotten wealth during his stint as Makati City mayor.

Meanwhile, Binay spokesman Joey Salgado said Trillanes’ setting a deadline for Binay to confirm his readiness to debate with him was the senator’s way of avoiding such confrontation.

“A debate has ground rules. A debate is a forum to inform, not to harass or intimidate. It is a forum for a sober presentation of arguments, not a bully pulpit. It is not a one-sided political circus like the on-going Senate witch-hunt being conducted by Senator Trillanes,” Salgado said.

“He knows full well that given a forum for sober, calm and informed discourse, he will never win the debate,” Salgado said.

The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) hopes to push through with the debate within the month but has not yet named the venue or the date.

KBP president Herman Basbaño said the original date of Nov. 10 was scrapped due to conflict in schedule.

Trillanes on Monday gave Binay until Nov. 22 to set the date of the debate, saying it would be exactly one month since the Vice President challenged him to a verbal duel. With Helen Flores, Evelyn Macairan, Marvin Sy