Palace wishes b-day boy Binay good health

MANILA, Philippines -  Malacañang wishes Vice President Jejomar Binay long life and good health for his 72nd birthday, which he celebrates today amid allegations that he amassed illegal wealth.

“Happy birthday to the Vice President. We wish that you enjoy your birthday, your
special day. (We are wishing you) longer life and good health,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said when asked for Malacañang’s birthday wish for Binay, also a member of the Cabinet.

When asked to react to Binay’s wish for an end to a campaign to smear his reputation, Valte said the question should be posed to those whom he thinks is behind the propaganda against him.

“I really can’t say much about it owing to the fact that, we have said this time and again, we have nothing to do with what is happening and we have more than enough on our plate to engage in extraneous activity,” Valte said.

Despite the differences between Binay and some administration allies, Malacañang believes that President Aquino and the Vice President can still work “when they need to.”

“The President already said what he has to say on the matter. From what I remember, the Vice President attended the last Cabinet meeting on Typhoon Yolanda. It was as expected. They work when they need to,” Valte said.

Earlier, the President said Binay is free to leave the Cabinet if he is no longer satisfied with the way things are being run by the administration.

Aquino made the statement after Binay criticized the administration’s way of handling the looming power crisis, criminality and traffic congestion in Metro Manila.

Binay, chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers, said he continues to respect the President and vowed to remain a “team player.”

Binay, who has declared his intention to run for President in 2016, has been tagged in allegedly overpriced projects like the Makati City Hall parking building and Makati Science High School.

Political rivals also claimed that the Binay family owns an estate in Rosario, Batangas.

Binay has maintained that he never stole public funds and dismissed all allegations as black propaganda.

On the eve of his 72nd birthday, the Vice President, his wife former Makati mayor Elenita Binay, daughter Sen. Nancy Binay and son Makati Mayor Junjun Binay attended a Mass yesterday at the Makati City Hall.

The Vice President declined to be interviewed after the Mass and rushed off to attend a forum on the rehabilitation efforts for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

The elder Binay also avoided answering questions from media on his alleged secret accounts in foreign banks.

“Boss, malayo na ‘yan sa issue (that is already far from the issue),” Binay told a reporter.

The issue Binay was referring to was the alleged overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building II, which is currently being investigated by the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee.

At the Senate hearing last Nov. 6, former Makati vice mayor Ernesto Mercado showed copies of some of Binay’s alleged time deposits and balance statements in various banks in Hong Kong.

Senator Binay said yesterday that instead of debating with her father, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV should file a court case against the Vice President.

Speaking to reporters shortly after the Mass held at Makati City Hall, Senator Binay said nothing would come out of the much-anticipated debate.

“I am not in favor of the debate because why would we stoop down to that level? Our work is priority,” said the senator, eldest of the Vice President’s children.

Senator Binay also dared Trillanes and her father’s other detractors to file an impeachment case against him.

Binay’s wife Elenita meanwhile told reporters that the planned debate was “pointless.”

P-Noy called Drilon

Senate President Franklin Drilon revealed yesterday that he had received a call from President Aquino a while back, relaying a request by Binay for the Senate to stop its investigations into the allegedly overpriced parking building constructed by the city government of Makati.

Drilon made the disclosure after reporters asked him if he received a call from the President about the request made by the Vice President.

The President himself previously admitted that he met with the Vice President at Malacañang last month and that it was Binay who brought up the issue of the cases and investigations being pursued against him by the Senate and the other government agencies.

Drilon said that he could not recall when he received the call from the President but he said that he saw it as being nothing more than Aquino relaying a request made by the Vice President.

“President Aquino called me up and relayed the request of Vice President Binay to stop the investigations,” Drilon said.

“I told him, sir, you were part of the Senate before, you know that nobody can dictate on the senators what to do, especially when the matter of when to start and stop an investigation is addressed to the chair and the members of a committee. Not even the Senate President can tell them to stop,” he added.

Drilon said that he did not feel any pressure from the call from the President and that he took it at face value.

“The President relayed to me in plain and simple language the request of the Vice President,” Drilon said.

However, Drilon admitted that the request was out of the ordinary and that it was the first time that he has been asked to do such a thing.

“Not in my own personal experience. I have been chair of so many committees, I have not received any request to stop an investigation,” Drilon said.

He said that he did not feel affronted by the request of the Vice President and the action of the President to relay it to him.

“Why should it be an affront? The President of the Republic was relaying a request of the Vice President of the Republic,” he said.

Trillanes said that the call made by the President to Drilon clearly had no effect on the hearings because these were not stopped and are still being conducted by the Blue Ribbon subcommittee.

According to Trillanes, that move by the Vice President was a confirmation that he has been looking for ways to stop the investigations being conducted by the Blue Ribbon subcommittee and other government agencies.

Aside from the alleged overpriced Makati parking building, Binay has also been accused of owning properties that he did not declare in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, including a 150-hectare estate in Rosario, Batangas.

Binay has denied being the owner of the estate and a Chinese-Filipino businessman named Antonio Tiu has claimed ownership of the Batangas estate.

Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla, Binay’s spokesman for political affairs, declined yesterday to comment on the Vice President’s reported request to stop the Senate inquiry.

“That issue is dead. We should talk about the more important things like the Yolanda rehabilitation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has filed a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the Rosario property should be properly assessed by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to determine if it falls under the scope of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.

Buhay party-list group Rep. Lito Atienza for his part denounced the Senate probe on the Makati City Hall parking building as an abuse of authority of the senators. – With Helen Flores, Mike Frialde, Alexis Romero, Marvin Sy, Perseus Echeminada