Senators in Binay probe desperate ­— UNA exec

MANILA, Philippines - The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) interim secretary believes the three senators leading the probe against Vice President Jejomar Binay are getting more desperate to undermine his credibility and ruin his chances in next year’s presidential polls.

As of yesterday afternoon, it was not known whether Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. and the other city officials would be attending today’s hearing.

In a statement, JV Bautista said Sens. Antonio Trillanes IV, Alan Peter Cayetano and Aquilino Pimentel III have again shown their bias when they threatened Mayor Binay and other city officials with contempt and allowed former Makati vice mayor Ernesto Mercado and other witnesses against the Vice President to lie under oath.

Bautista said the threat of contempt against Binay shows Mercado’s and the senators’ desperation to pin down the Vice President.

Mercado made unsubstantiated statements under oath that were exposed as lies, but the three senators did not cite him for contempt, he added.

Bautista said complainant Renato Bondal during a Senate hearing had testified under oath that the price of the cakes that the Makati City government gives to senior citizens was overpriced at P1,000. The city government had produced documents to show it was priced at only P350, he added.

Bautista said Bondal had admitted that he was only guessing, yet the three senators did not admonish him.

“Instead of presenting hard facts, the three senators froth and screech at anyone who don’t toe their line on testimonies of witnesses who do not jibe with their script and agenda,” he said.

Makati city officials are merely invoking their constitutional rights that resource persons invited to the Senate hearings be informed beforehand of the questions to be asked them, Bautista said.

Pimentel said he would withdraw his recommendation if Mayor Binay and the others show up in today’s hearing or, at the very least, give their commitment to appear in future hearings.

“For as long as you show respect, remorse, repentance for committing the mistake of snubbing the subpoena and then you appear, even the courts can forgive,” he said.

Pimentel said he was forced to   recommend to cite Mayor Binay,   Tomas Lopez, Eleno Mendoza, Eduviges Baloloy, Marjorie de Veyra, Line dela Peña and Bernadette Portollano in contempt for failing to appear before the hearings in spite of the subpoenas issued to them.

“We do not want to cite people in contempt,” he said. ?“We do not want to detain people. But when we are forced to do so, we will. We have to, otherwise it’s the power of the entire Senate to conduct inquiries in aid of legislation which is at stake. Not only of the Senate but the future senates.”

Blue Ribbon committee chairman Teofisto Guingona III said committee members will meet on Monday to discuss the recommendation to declare Mayor Binay in contempt of the Senate.

A majority vote of the committee would be needed to approve this, he added.

Vice President Binay’s spokesman for political affairs said yesterday the threat to cite Mayor Binay and six other city officials in contempt is meant to drum up public interest in today’s hearing.

Rico Paolo Quicho said members of the subcommittee continue to look for issues to throw against the Vice President, including the alleged use of funds from the Boy Scouts of the Philippines and Pag-IBIG Fund for his personal interests, but that Filipinos appear to be losing interest in the hearings. – With Marvin Sy