CEBU CITY, Philippines – They may not be on talking terms, but Vice President Jejomar Binay insisted yesterday that his relationship with President Aquino remains “OK.”
Aquino had said last Monday that the Vice President was free to leave the Cabinet if he did not like the way the government was being run.
Binay had criticized the administration for failing to address problems besetting the people.
“We’re OK. We even laugh at each other. I still have a high respect for the President. But during yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, the topic was serious, it was all about the Yolanda rehabilitation,” Binay said in an interview over radio dyHP here yesterday, referring to the Cabinet meeting last Wednesday wherein it was noted that the top two officials of the land did not speak to each other.
Binay said he decided not to attend yesterday’s hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee over the allegations against him, and would instead go to the media and directly to the people to present his side.
He insisted the allegations against him and his family form part of a demolition campaign to derail his political plans.
“It came to the point of becoming too personal and the allegations are baseless and humiliating,” he added.
Binay said he remained unfazed by all the allegations of corruption against him. He said the attacks would not discourage him from running for president in 2016.
“I am not a hypocrite. I made the declaration that I want to run for president in 2016... unlike the others who are playing it coy but really want to run,” Binay said in Filipino.
He said the reason he declared early for the highest government post was the radically changing political landscape.
Binay said there is a smear campaign against him called “Operation Stop Nognog 2016,” and accused Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II of being its mastermind.
Despite the smear campaigns, Binay said he would not be distracted from doing his job.
“I will continue to help our countrymen rise from poverty. My detractors want me to do the opposite, to be part of the problem rather than helping them out of poverty and unemployment,” Binay said.
He said it is still too early to pick a running mate, and there is a wide field of qualified candidates.
Among the possibilities he mentioned were Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza and Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian, who are known to be eyeing slots in the opposition’s Senate slate.– Mitchelle Palaubsanon/The Freeman