Binay snubs Senate probe

MANILA, Philippines - He has been “prejudged” and any explanation to prove his innocence would be “useless,” Vice President Jejomar Binay declared as he skipped yesterday’s Senate probe where he said “fair play does not exist.”

Binay instead spent the day in Cebu City, and sent the Senate Blue Ribbon committee a prepared statement that the panel refused to read at the hearing.

The committee, led by chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, waited for close to an hour for the Vice President to show up. When it was clear that he was not attending, the hearing was adjourned.

Binay’s representatives JV Bautista and Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco met with members of the Blue Ribbon committee and asked that Binay’s prepared statement be read during the hearing. Their request was denied.

In his letter read later by Bautista before newsmen, Binay said he had actually considered attending the hearing to clear his name, but realized Senators Antonio Trillanes IV and Alan Peter Cayetano were unlikely to accord him respect.

He said he felt he would be treated like a criminal just like what his representatives had experienced in the previous hearings.

He cited the hearing held last week where Cayetano threw out Bautista and Tiangco, his two authorized representatives, before they could present some evidence on his behalf.

“The behavior of Senators Cayetano and Trillanes last Oct. 30 and in previous hearings showed they were not ready to listen to any explanation that is contrary to their conclusion that I did something wrong,” Binay said in his statement in Filipino.

“This is what they’re showing in their continuous humiliation, affront, repression, intimidation of ordinary people whose testimonies are contrary to their conclusion,” he said,

The Vice President also chided the leadership of the Senate for allowing the members of the Blue Ribbon subcommittee to continuously violate the rights of his representatives under existing laws.

Instead of having those resource persons aid the committee in coming up with possible legislation, Binay said that they were treated like criminals.

The Vice President said that under those circumstances, his attendance might only set a bad precedent.

The Vice President said that he prepared a sworn affidavit containing his explanations to the “baseless allegations” and asked that this be included in the records of the Senate.

After meeting with Trillanes, Cayetano and Blue Ribbon subcommittee chairman Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, Guingona said that a decision was made against allowing Bautista and Tiangco to read the statement of the Vice President during the hearing.

It was also revealed by the staff of Guingona that no affidavit was submitted to them by Bautista and Tiangco.

Trillanes said that he saw no point in allowing Bautista to read the statement of the Vice President before the committee “since he can just submit it to us and just read it in public through the media.”

“He flatters himself too much. He is irrelevant to us,” Trillanes said of Bautista.

Guingona said that the Vice President wasted an opportunity for him to air his side through the Blue Ribbon committee.

“It’s saddening that the Vice President did not give the public the chance to listen to his position and make its own views and conclusions,” Guingona said in Filipino.

“I feel sorry that the Vice President has chosen to snub the invitation of the mother committee despite my assurance that he would be accorded respect befitting his position, as well as fair treatment, and the chance to face and answer his accusers,” he added.

Presumed guilty

Binay said he realized there was no point attending a proceeding where he was immediately considered a wrongdoer.

He said the allegations raised against him were not in the resolution filed by Trillanes calling for a Blue Ribbon probe on the reported overpricing in the construction of Makati City Hall parking building when Binay was still city mayor.

He said he was wondering why the investigation had suddenly veered away from the parking building project toward his alleged ownership of a 350-hectare farming estate in Rosario, Batangas.

What enraged him more, he said, was when Cayetano presented to the Blue Ribbon subcommittee several Instagram photos of his youngest daughter Joanna Marie, 24, taken in the farming estate in December 2014. One of the photos was captioned “In our farm in Batangas.”

“That’s the saddest part. That’s what really made me angry. She is my youngest daughter. It’s too much, it’s too much,” Binay said.

He also voiced fear that the proceedings at the Senate panel would be used as basis for filing an impeachment case against him. “Bawal naman yun (That’s not allowed),” Binay said.

He explained that according to the Supreme Court, the bases for an impeachment complaint cannot be used as justification for the filing of other cases. “Impeachment should come first before the filing of other cases,” he said.

The Vice President reiterated there was no overpricing in the construction of the Makati City Hall parking building as attested to by the Commission on Audit.

He also accused his former vice mayor Ernesto Mercado of lying repeatedly during the earlier Senate hearings.

He said Mercado could not have taken the aerial footage of the Batangas farming estate because he was not in the aircraft manifest. Having undergone surgery, Mercado would not have withstood the noise and vibration of the aircraft, Binay said.

He also clarified that he is an honorary member of the Makati Sports Club as city mayor and not a stockholder, contrary to Mercado’s allegation.

Thankful

Tobias, interim president of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), said he was thankful the Vice President listened to his advice to skip the hearing, adding it was Trillanes’ “spiteful words” that finally convinced the Vice President to change his mind.

Tiangco said that while Binay was holding on to the assurance of Guingona that he would be treated with respect and dignity, events showed the senator would not be able to guarantee such.

He also said Trillanes’ pronouncement that Binay should be prepared to be grilled for six hours only meant that the Vice President would be treated like a crime suspect.

“I thank the VP for heeding my request not to attend the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing. The incident today (yesterday) when attorney JV (Bautista) and I were not allowed to read the statement of the Vice President, just shows that Sen. TG Guingona will just be outvoted and the conduct of the hearings will be the way the subcommittee wants it to be,” Tiangco said.

Meanwhile, Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian expressed sympathy for businessman Antonio Tiu, who was smarting from a joke from Cayetano about kidnapping.

Tiu on Wednesday lambasted Cayetano for making light at last week’s Senate hearing the threat of kidnapping should he open his bank accounts.

“Kidnapping is no laughing matter and I share the sentiment of Antonio Tiu that the Senate should not take lightly the possibility of Mr. Tiu and his family being kidnapped once he accedes to the demand of Senator Cayetano that he makes public his bank accounts,” Gatchalian said.

“Mr. Tiu has all the right to fear for his life and for his security since it is on record that Chinoys, who are considered a minority as they constitute only 1.2 percent of the population, are favorite targets of kidnap groups,” he said.

Gatchalian said Tiu has no other recourse now but to reinforce his personal and his family’s security since kidnappers may already have an idea of Tiu’s wealth.

“If Chinoys like Mr. Tiu have the resources, it is best that they use it to make themselves hard targets for kidnappers since these lawless elements prefer the easy ones as this involves lesser risk for their group,” he said.

Message to VP

For Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Binay should ponder on a biblical message that the innocent “are brave as a lion but the guilty flee.”

The senator issued the statement yesterday during a press conference in Quezon City, where she said the Vice President had already submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the subcommittee when he sent representatives to answer the allegations against him.

“For him to now cry that there is no jurisdiction is too late in the day. That’s not how the law works,” she said.

She also advised the Blue Ribbon subcommittee to end the conduct of the hearings and just present the facts to the Office of the Ombudsman for possible filing of cases.

She said the objective of the hearings, which is in aid of legislation, has already been fulfilled and that the “criminal facet of the case should now be endorsed properly to the ombudsman.”

She also said Trillanes “is already eliciting criticisms for the inquisitorial nature of the proceedings, so maybe the better course of action will be to present them all, file them all to the ombudsman and then of course give copies to the press.” With Paolo Romero, Janvic Mateo