Binay tags group of lawyers in demolition job

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Jejomar Binay yesterday said a well-known group of lawyers has supported the filing of plunder charges against him.

“This complaint is no exception, although we have been informed that this time around, our local opponents have been provided with the needed resources, financial and otherwise, by certain national interest groups, particularly a group of lawyers closely identified with a national personality,” Binay said in a speech before the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) and the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP).

He said the plunder complaint was meant to derail his chances in the 2016 elections.

According to Binay, the complainants are known to be local political opponents of his family.

He said a group of lawyers that he did not identify has been trying to resurrect dismissed cases against him by supporting the complaint.

Binay said the complainants have a routine of raising nonexistent issues against his family during the election season.

“Believe me, this is only the beginning. We expect more to come. And like the one filed yesterday, these complaints will be devoid of facts, devoid of legal basis, and fueled by the dirty politics that was supposed to have been swept away with the previous administration,” Binay said.

Binay added those behind the complaint intended to sow intrigue between him and President Aquino by spreading the word that it was from Malacañang.

“And it appears that there is a deeper agenda at play. We have been told that those who are pulling the strings want to sow intrigue between President Aquino and myself. They want me to think that the Palace is orchestrating the filing of this baseless complaint against me and my son to divert attention from the impeachment complaints filed against the President,” Binay said.

“They want me to think that this is hatched by the President and because of this I was hurt. In short, they want me and the President to fight,” he said.

Binay also pointed out the complainants focused only on his allies in Makati, and dropped the names of their allies who attended city council sessions.

“They only included the names of our allies. But their allies and partymates were part of the city council and were present when the council approved the ordinances they cited, so why exclude them? Your guess is as good as mine but that, for me, is undeniable proof of the selective, frivolous and political nature of this so-called complaint,” he said.

The younger Binay, for his part, said he and his father are ready to face the complaints.

“The truth and the facts are on our aside. We just hope that the concerned agencies of government will be fair and impartial,” the mayor said.

He said the filing of the plunder case is not new as he had exposed it last June. “This complaint is nothing new. Last June 16 we exposed to media a plan to file complaints before the ombudsman against my father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, myself in my capacity as mayor of Makati, and several former and current city officials. We said it would be about the Parking Building. We were correct. We said it would allege overpricing based on spurious grounds. We were correct. We said it would be filed by local opponents with a reputation for running and losing in all Makati elections. We were correct,” he said.

Two former barangay chairmen in Makati City have filed plunder complaints against Binay and his son the mayor before the Office of the Ombudsman against for the alleged overpriced construction of a new parking building.

Lawyer Renato Bondal, former barangay chairman of Palanan, and Nicolas Enciso VI, ex-barangay chief of Olimpia, said the New Makati City parking building was overpriced by P1.3 billion.

The construction of the 11-story building located along F. Zobel Street, Poblacion, Makati City, started in 2007, funded through the first appropriation ordinance which was proposed and approved by the vice president.

The building, which is the subject of a plunder complaint, is not just a parking building, but also an office space with parking floors, according to Makati City administrator Eleno Mendoza Jr.

Mendoza said the building accommodates all the offices of the city government’s services.

Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian said he expects the vice president to easily quash the plunder complaint filed against him and his son.

Gatchalian questioned the timing of the filing of plunder charges, saying that he can only think of politics as behind the move. – Paolo Romero, Mike Frialde, Louella Desiderio