Noy denies offering help in Senate probe on Binay

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino refuted yesterday the claim of Vice President Jejomar Binay’s spokesman that he offered to help in the investigations into Binay’s alleged ill-gotten wealth.

Aquino said it was actually the other way around.

“I didn’t offer to help. He (Binay) asked for advice on how to handle the situation, amongst other things,” said Aquino, a long-time friend of Binay.

Aquino also bared that Binay requested to have the Senate terminate its inquiry into his wealth as the Office of the Ombudsman is the agency tasked with primary jurisdiction over the investigation.

Earlier, Binay’s spokesman and Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla said that Aquino offered help to Binay when the two met at the Bahay Pangarap last week at the height of investigations of the Senate and the justice department into Binay’s wealth.

But the President said “it was the Vice President who actually initiated the meeting.”

“He texted me and asked if he could see me and I said yes. I readily agreed,” Aquino said, adding that their meeting started around 9:30 p.m. and lasted until past midnight.

Aquino recounted that Binay conveyed to him how his wife Elenita was “hurting” from all of this.

“I didn’t ask about the family. He (Binay) volunteered the information,” the President said.

“The person who did it, I guess, with all due respect to the person, I think he had it reversed. He had it in reverse,” the President said, referring to Remulla.

There were also reminiscences about the days when they toppled the Marcos regime in 1986.

“In case you don’t know, the Vice President and I worked together at the start of EDSA (people power revolution). We were in Makati thanking the volunteers who tried to guard the ballots in Makati. That’s where we first heard the news,” Aquino recounted.

“He actually escorted me back to our residence, where I got my siblings and brought them to a safer location. (He was) present in all of the coups in defending my mom’s administration as mayor of Makati,” the President added.

Aquino said that Binay remarked that there may be differences in their management style and “philosophies” but “at the end of the day, he still acknowledges that we are friends.”

Binay still to pursue presidency

Despite the corruption allegations against him, Binay will pursue his plan to run for president in 2016.

“I will not reconsider. The decision is there and I’ve always been saying since I was a child I aspire to be the president,” Binay said in an interview with ANC Tuesday night.

“What I have done in Makati shows the kind of leader I am. So that is nothing. That (reconsider) is not part of my vocabulary,” he added.

Binay also said he still hopes to get the endorsement of Aquino.

“Oh yes. I think it’s a legitimate hope. Every vote counts for a politician. If I will be endorsed by the President no less, that is already plus one,” Binay said. “I would be hypocrite if I say I would not need his endorsement. That is not true. In politics, you hope that everyone will vote for you and support you.”

Binay, however, tagged Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II and Senate President Franklin Drilon as the masterminds of “Operation Plan Stop Nognog in 2016,” an alleged plot to destroy Binay’s chances in the 2016 presidential polls.

“Mr. Roxas and Mr. Drilon are leading the Nognog 2016,” Binay said.

He cited the involvement of Roxas’ 2010 campaign funder Buddy Zamora in the aerial survey of the 350-hectare farm in Batangas that is allegedly owned by the Binay family through their dummies.

He said one of Roxas’ staff was also supposedly a passenger in the chopper that surveyed the property.

Binay added that when former Makati vice mayor Ernesto Mercado was hospitalized, Roxas was among his first visitors.

Mercado has accused Binay of receiving kickbacks from various infrastructure projects when he was still mayor of Makati City.

“Let’s not be hypocrites here. He’s (Roxas) a candidate. I’m not a hypocrite about my plans,” Binay said. – With Helen Flores