Binay daughter wins condo unit in raffle

MANILA, Philippines - Makati City Rep. Abigail Binay yesterday said there should be not much of a fuss in her winning a condominium studio unit in Pasig City in a raffle held by the Power Plant Mall last Christmas.

The Power Plant Mall, in its Facebook page, congratulated Binay “for winning a studio unit at The Grove by Rockwell.” The post went viral and elicited various comments from netizens, ranging from congratulatory to allegations that the raffle was rigged.

The lawmaker is a daughter of Vice President Jejomar Binay and a sister of Sen. Nancy Binay. Her brother, Jun-jun Binay, is mayor of Makati City where the Power Plant Mall is located.

While very happy over her winning, Binay also rued the negative comments she got from some quarters.

“If it were another person (who won the raffle), it will not be talked about. Maybe because it is me, but I was really surprised, up to now it still hasn’t sunk in,” Binay told reporters.

“I’ve been joking that if I would be rigging something, I wish it was lotto so the prize would be big,” she said.

“It was just pure chance, maybe just pure luck. Maybe because of our hardship in Congress last year, God said ‘I’ll give you something to lift your spirits’,” she added.

She said she has been lucky in raffles in the past, sometimes winning free trips abroad. But this was the first time she won something this expensive.

She said she was able to get into the raffle when the mall last year offered one raffle ticket for every P2,500 worth of purchase. She said she was able to get raffle tickets when she bought toys for her children.

“I’ll thank my friend who gave me a feng shui advice that I should roll kiat-kiat at my door on New Year’s Eve. So I did that, and one day after the Chinese New Year, I got a phone call that I won,” Binay said, referring to the small orange-colored citrus fruit.

She said she has no plans yet on what to do with her first condominium unit that would be available in 2015.

Binay said she already got the keys to the 32-square meter unit – estimated to be worth over P5 million – and she was ready to pay the attendant taxes amounting to over P800,000.