Editorial - Not so fast

What did Vice President Jejomar Binay mean when he said his fraternity brod was innocent when the latter surrendered to him after getting implicated in a grenade throwing incident right after the latest Bar examination?

Binay could not have meant the suspect, against whom charges have already been filed, was innocent in the context of how most people understand the word. As a lawyer, Binay knows only the courts can make that determination.

So, did the vice president then mean that he was merely expressing a personal opinion, that to his mind he felt that the suspect was not guilty of the crime against which he has been charged?

If that is the case, then the vice president committed a very serious blunder and owes the nation, especially the victims of the bombing, nothing less than a public apology. There are situations where Binay could express an opinion. Telling the nation wasn't one of them.

In fact, the vice president never qualified his statement by saying he was merely expressing a personal opinion. Even if that is still unacceptable, it nevertheless should have at least tempered the effect of his wayward comment.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was a little bit more cautious, although not necessarily any better, when she similarly “cleared” a Cebuano who earlier had also been implicated in the same incident by the NBI.

At least when de Lima said the Cebuano was “off the hook” as far as the NBI investigation was concerned, the justice secretary crooked the index and middle fingers of her left and right hands, in a gesture widely understood to mean “quote and unquote.”

In so doing, de Lima made it clear her statement about the Cebuano being “off the hook” was subjective, dependent on certain qualifications that, at the time she said it, allowed her to say it. To gesture “quote and unquote” with the fingers is the same as issuing a caveat. 

 In the case of Binay, he neither said he was expressing a personal opinion nor, like de Lima, crooked his index and middle fingers to signify the “quote and unquote” gesture. He said it straight, as if making a declaration. He does need to apologize.