MANILA, Philippines — Elenita Binay, wife of former Vice President Jejomar Binay Sr., has asked the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan to allow her to go to Japan for a one-week vacation.
In a two-page motion submitted to the Sandiganbayan Fifth and Third Divisions, Mrs. Binay, through her legal counsels sought permission to stay in Osaka and Tokyo, Japan from April 1 to 8.
Should the court grant her motion, Mrs. Binay said she will be billeted at Swisshotel Nankai Osaka from April 1 to 4 and at Shibuya Excel Hotel from April 5 to 8. Both hotels are located in Osaka Prefecture.
Mrs. Binay is facing two counts of graft and two counts of malversation of public funds before the Third Division in connection with the alleged anomalous purchase of hospital beds worth P36.43 million in 2001 and autoclave sterilizers worth P8.83 million in 2000 for Ospital ng Makati or OsMak during her term as the city mayor.
Meanwhile, her graft case before the Fifth Division stemmed from the alleged anomalous purchase of office partitions and furniture worth P72.06 million in 1999 allegedly through rigged bidding.
Mrs. Binay maintains that she is not a flight risk as proven by her return to the country after her previous trips abroad.
Meanwhile, in an order dated March 17, 2017, released to the media Wednesday, the Fifth Division allows the presentation of former Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado as the next witness of the prosecution for the continuation of the hearing against Mrs. Binay on March 29.
The prosecution had early maintained that Mercado can give a competent testimony on the case as he supposedly possesses an original copy of a Commission on Audit (COA) report that would prove that state auditors found irregularities in the Makati City government’s purchase of the questioned office partitions and furniture.