‘Cayetano bullying Binay to gain media mileage’

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Jejomar Binay’s daughter yesterday accused Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano of “bullying” her father and brother to gain more media mileage to prop up his presidential ambition in the 2016 elections.

In a statement, House Deputy Majority Leader and Makati Rep. Abigail Binay said that “by bullying the Vice President and his family, Senator Cayetano hopes to attract a lot of attention and generate loads of free publicity for himself.”

Last week, Cayetano badgered Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay during the Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s inquiry into the allegedly overpriced Makati parking building. After the hearing, Cayetano boldly challenged the Vice President to face the Senate inquiry himself.

But Rep. Binay said Cayetano’s actions have something to do with the presidential elections.

She also claimed that Cayetano has been discreetly meeting with selected House members, including those representing non-aligned party-list groups, and aggressively courting them to support his presidential bid this early.

“Senator Cayetano has been telling his staff that he wants to quadruple his voter support and get at least 15 percent of the votes by around this time next year. Otherwise, he will supposedly drop out of the presidential race,” she added.

Citing the latest Pulse Asia survey, Rep. Binay said that if the presidential election is held now, her father will be the runaway winner with 40 percent selecting him as their first choice.

Ranked second to sixth in the choices for president and their corresponding voter support are Sen. Grace Poe (15 percent); Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago (10 percent); Sen. Francis Escudero (9 percent); Interior Secretary Mar Roxas (6 percent); and Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (5 percent).

Cayetano and presidential sister Kris Aquino occupied the seventh and eighth slots with around 4 percent voter support.

“So he (Cayetano) is now on hard sell mode – forcefully trying to promote himself at the expense of the Vice President and his family, which is downright uncalled for,” Rep. Binay stressed.

“We wish the senator could just promote himself through positive public relations by conveying to everybody all his accomplishments for the country. To be able to climb up, people do not have to put other people down,” she added.

Sen. Nancy Binay, meanwhile, reiterated her call to Blue Ribbon chairman Teofisto Guingona III to start the probe into the P900-million Malampaya Fund scam as soon as possible after the body acted quickly on the Makati parking building. – With Christina Mendez, Jess Diaz, Michael Punongbayan