Vice President Jejomar Binay. (INQUIRER PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Jejomar Binay won’t budge and won’t attend the Senate hearing on the alleged overpriced Makati City Hall Building 2 despite the results of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, his spokesperson said Monday.
“There are other venues where the Vice President can address the baseless allegations and lies—venues where there is no other agenda except arriving at the truth,” Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla said in a statement.
The latest SWS poll showed that 79 percent of Filipinos wanted Binay to attend the hearing and directly address the allegations of corruption against him. Only 10 percent said he should not appear while 11 percent remained undecided.
The results were consistent or spread across all social classes.
Remulla called the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee “farcical” and Binay’s attendance “futile” since he has already been prejudged.
“The Senate has prejudged Vice President Jojo Binay. Senator (Antonio) Trillanes has been brash about his prejudgment of the issue and blatant enough to say his objective is to bring down the survey ratings of the Vice President and even send the Vice President to jail,” he said.
The governor said Senators Trillanes and Alan Peter Cayetano already accepted “as gospel truth” the claims of former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado despite being “unfounded.”
“And while they coddle Mercado, they lambast COA (Commission on Audit) auditors and other witnesses whose testimonies went against or even contradicted the senators’ well-rehearsed script,” he said.
He reiterated earlier claims that the hearings aimed to tarnish the reputation of Binay who will run as president in the 2016 elections.
Binay is the standard bearer of the opposition group United Nationalist Alliance.
He earlier dismissed an invitation from the Senate subcommittee but was again invited by subcommittee chair Senator Aquilino “Kiko” Pimentel.