The VP race: Binay

In the tumultuous days of February 1986, when it was feared that someone might try to bring harm to the family of assassinated opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr., his widow Corazon called Manila from Cebu, where she was with the Pink Sisters, to make sure her children would be safe.

Upon her instructions, her daughters and only son Benigno “Noynoy” III were transferred from their Times Street home to the Wack-Wack residence of her sister Josephine.

The group that protected the children included Aquino loyalist Bodet Honrado, who later became an Air Force general, and a lawyer who had been jailed 10 times by the Marcos regime, once for three months for subversion: Jejomar Binay.

A few days later, under a post-EDSA revolutionary government, Binay was named officer-in-charge (OIC) of the richest municipality in the country, Makati, ending the long reign of the Yabut clan.

The municipality is now a city, and the Binays have kept their hold on power in Makati for the past 24 years.

Perpetuating a dynasty is an issue raised against Binay, who is now running for the second highest post in the land. Like other politicians confronting similar criticism, he says the only way a dynasty can be perpetuated is by satisfying the need of the constituency for effective governance.

Binay is also defensive about the substantial increase in his personal wealth since he entered local government. He has made Makati grow, he told us. Why can’t he grow his businesses?

He owes what he is today to Cory Aquino, Binay said when he faced STAR editors and reporters last Thursday as part of our series on the candidates for vice president. In 2003 when Kris Aquino complained of domestic violence during a fight with her ex, former Parañaque mayor Joey Marquez, her mom asked Binay to help when Kris filed a formal complaint at Camp Crame.

Binay is seen to be closer to Noynoy Aquino than the running mate of the Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer, and he is sometimes referred to these days as “Binoy.”

Last year when Binay visited The STAR as head of the United Nationalist Opposition (UNO), he was aiming for the presidency. But he said he gave up his ambition when Noynoy decided to run himself. Then there was Joseph Estrada, whose party is part of UNO and who was determined to seek re-election. A good leader, Binay said, should also be a good follower.

Despite the close ties, a “Noy-Bi” tandem at this point is unlikely. Binay is the running mate of Estrada, one of the local executives summarily replaced with OICs by Cory Aquino after the original people power revolt.

Noynoy Aquino is with another party, and his running mate, if surveys are accurate, looks headed for a decisive win in May.

Binay, who is ranking third behind the Liberal Party’s Mar Roxas and the Nacionalistas’ Loren Legarda, says he takes the survey results as “a wake-up call,” although like Erap, he questions survey methodology. Binay notes that among the candidates for vice president, he is the only one whose ratings continue to rise. He appreciates the national exposure he has received by campaigning together with Erap, who remains popular among the masses.

“I’m very much an optimist,” Binay told us. “That’s why I know I’m going to win.”

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Being the running mate of an ousted president, Binay promises to be a team player if he wins. He emphasizes that the president, even if from another party, could sleep soundly with him as vice president because he would not grab power.

There was no legitimate cause for EDSA II and it set a bad precedent, he said. But if he were the vice president in 2005, when several Cabinet members called the Hyatt 10 quit and demanded, together with Cory Aquino, the resignation of President Arroyo for poll fraud, Binay said he would have taken over. At the time, he had allowed Makati’s main commercial district to be the venue of anti-government protests.

Binay’s campaign tack is focused on wooing the support of political leaders at the grassroots, by promising to champion the empowerment of local government units (LGUs).

Having been in charge of Makati for over two decades, Binay has studied the issue closely. For example, he points out that LGUs get only 18 percent of the revenue they remit to the national government. The limited budget makes it tough, he says, to comply with the requirement for all LGUs to have a viable annual development plan. This is a problem, he says, even in Makati, which has the country’s richest barangay (not Forbes Park but Bel-Air) and the second richest (San Lorenzo).

Previous administrations have merely paid lip service to decentralization, he says. And yet if every barangay could be empowered and become progressive, it would lead to national progress.

Binay is counting on the votes of seven million senior citizens, who have seen the benefits enjoyed by the elderly in Makati. 

Being the only vice presidential candidate from the Ilocos Region, he is also counting on the votes of Ilocanos. Binay’s mother, who died when he was nine, was an elementary school teacher in Isabela. His father, a government librarian, is from Batangas, so Binay is also counting on a large chunk of votes from Southern Tagalog.

Arriving at The STAR, Binay shook the hands of people at the lobby, counting aloud each hand he held as a vote: “Isa, dalawa… limang boto…”

He believes there’s still time to work for victory.