Binay graft raps: Abby charged, ma cleared

MANILA, Philippines - Graft charges were filed against Makati Mayor Abigail Binay with the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday for her alleged failure to stop illegal online gaming activities in the city.

Also yesterday, the Sandiganbayan acquitted Abigail’s mother, former mayor Elenita Binay, in a graft case after prosecutors failed to prove she had a hand in the city government’s purchase of allegedly overpriced office fixture and furniture 16 years ago.

The group Anti-Trapo Movement (ATM) filed the graft case against the incumbent mayor, claiming the younger Binay and other officials granted business permits to so-called business process outsourcing firms that actually earn money through online illegal gambling operations.

Also named a respondent was business permits and licensing office chief Maribert Pagente. 

Leon Estrella Peralta, the group’s founding chairman, said that “because of the negligence and apparent indifference of Makati’s leadership, not only have illegal gambling syndicates found safe haven in the city; they have unwittingly allowed the proliferation of illegal drugs and rampant employment of undocumented aliens.”

The ATM is asking Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales to issue a preventive suspension order against Binay and Pagente while it is conducting a probe.

Apart from graft, the group said the respondents should also be held liable for violation of Republic Act 6713 of the code of conduct and ethical standards for public officials and employees.

Makati spokesman and city legal officer Michael Camiña said the city government shut down around 90 firms as part of its “strict policy against illegal gambling. Only gaming establishments with licenses from appropriate government agencies are allowed to operate within the city.”

He said if the ATM is referring to firms “issued permits and operating within economic zones,” these establishments “were given business permits as support to offshore gaming companies and… should not be operating as gaming facilities.”

Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division said government lawyers failed to prove the elder Binay’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Former councilor and general services office (GSO) head Ernesto Aspillaga and private respondent Vivian Edna Edurise were also acquitted of the graft charges stemming from the transactions in 1999 and 2000. 

Two weeks ago, the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division junked a similar criminal case against Binay by granting the demurrer to evidence filed by the accused and other respondents to the case.

The case was in connection with allegedly irregular purchases of office furniture worth P232 million from 1999 to 2001.

Also cleared of graft charges in the first case were Aspillaga, Bernadette Aquino, Nicanor Santiago, Salvador Pangilinan and Beda Aquino.

The elder Binay has another pending graft case before the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division arising from the city government’s allegedly overpriced purchase of hospital equipment in 2000 and 2001.