Junjun Binay hits Trillanes over Senate resolution to probe 'overpriced' Makati building

MANILA, Philippines - Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay on Wednesday dared Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to publicly apologize if the accusation of alleged overpricing in the construction of the Makati City hall’s new parking and office building is disproven in next week’s hearing of the Blue Ribbon Committee.

Trillanes had earlier filed a Senate resolution seeking a Senate investigation into the said allegation. Mayor Binay said the Makati City government is prepared to defend its position that there was no overpricing.

Binay also lashed at Trillanes for apparently “prejudging” the issue as he appealed that he and the other local Makati officials who will be attending the hearing be “treated decently.”

Binay said Trillanes is not interested in ferreting out the truth but in maligning the name of vice president Jejomar Binay who was also linked to the complaint of plunder filed before the Ombudsman by former Makati barangay officials Renato Bondal and Nicolas "Ching" Enciso VI.

“Based on his statements, he has made up his mind and he intends to use the Senate hearing as a platform to malign the name of the vice president,” Binay said.

"When the facts all come out and when the allegations are proven false, we ask nothing in return but a public apology from the senator who authored the probe and from the committee for allowing itself to be used as a venue for character assassination and political demolition,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mayor Binay also reacted to Trillanes’s statement that he will “present witnesses against the vice president.” 

“May we remind the senator that this is not a trial. It is supposed to be a hearing in aid of legislation,” he said.

Binay also said that a Senate inquiry was also unnecessary as the allegation was already dismissed by the Commission on Audit (COA) that conducted a review in response to a request made by the complainants.

“The allegations have already been discredited as baseless by an intensive review made by COA in response to a request made by the complainants. The Ombudsman has already asked the parties to comment. This means that the investigation process has started. A Senate inquiry would therefore be unnecessary,” Binay said.

“The Commission on Audit has already cleared the project of overpricing allegations in an intensive audit in February. The findings underscore our position from the start that these allegations by our political opponents do not have factual and legal basis. They were made as part of an organized demolition scheme against my father, Vice President Jejomar Binay,” Binay added.

Binay again clarified that the disputed building is not a specific parking building but an office building with parking floors. Thus, the description “Makati City Hall Parking Building” supposedly given by the contractor, as mentioned in the resolution filed by Trillanes, was a “misnomer” and should not be taken literally.

Earlier, Mayor Binay cited a six-page memorandum report of the Commission on Audit (COA) that cleared the Makati city government of overpricing allegations as early as February of this year. 

The audit report was in response to a letter written by Bondal dated January 10 2014 asking the COA Makati auditor to explain the alleged discrepancy between the project cost and data from the National Statistics Office. Copies of the letter were sent to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and COA chair Grace Pulido-Tan who referred the letter to COA-National Capital Region.

In particular, the COA report said there was no basis for the claim of discrepancy between the project cost and statistics from the NSO cited by Bondal.

The report also said COA technical audit specialists found the contract price "reasonable” and that, after checking previous audit reports from 2008 to 2010, found that these “did not disclose any adverse finding" on the said project.