P-Noy told to keep hands off VP probe

Palace: Noy respects co-equal body

MANILA, Philippines - Warning that it would set a “dangerous precedent,” Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said yesterday that President Aquino should keep his hands off the Senate probe into the allegations of corruption against Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Pimentel issued the statement after Aquino, speaking with reporters in Beijing, said the Senate’s probe of Binay “in dribs and drabs” was detracting from the chamber’s task of passing urgent legislation.

“The President should be hands off when it comes to the conduct of legislative investigations,” Pimentel said.

Malacañang said the President never demanded an end to the Senate inquiry and did not violate the independence of a co-equal branch of government.

“He respects the co-equal branch and (said) that the senators are fully aware of their roles as lawmakers, mindful of pending legislation, in addition to their corollary responsibility of conducting investigations,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

Binay’s camp welcomed President Aquino’s call for the Senate to speed up its investigation on the Vice President so they can focus on legislative work.

Binay’s spokesman Joey Salgado said the court – and not the Senate subcommittee hearing – is the proper venue to determine the guilt or innocence of the Vice President.

Pimentel joined other senators in brushing aside the President’s call to speed up the Senate investigation on Binay.

“The Department of Justice is conducting its own investigation into the same subject matter so he should give the DOJ the deadline and not the Senate because the DOJ is under his office,” Pimentel said.

“What if there’s an investigation of a department secretary or someone closely identified with the President some time in the future? Can he still tell or advise the committee to speed up or terminate the investigation or how to conduct the investigation? That would be a dangerous precedent and could be misconstrued as interference with a co-equal branch of government,” Pimentel added.

Pimentel is chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee conducting the probe into the allegedly overpriced parking building constructed by the city government of Makati.

Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit in Beijing on Tuesday, Aquino said the Senate should present all of its evidence against the Vice President and not in “dribs and drabs” so as not to disrupt urgent legislation.

Pimentel said the Blue Ribbon subcommittee has been conducting investigations five hours at a time and as far as he was concerned, this was time well spent.

Whatever perceived delays caused by the hearings were, according to Pimentel, not the fault of the subcommittee but the resource persons invited, particularly from the camp of the Vice President.

“We have also encountered ‘unfriendly and uncooperative’ behavior from those being investigated. These are the people causing the perceived delay,” Pimentel said.

“Makati officials have boycotted the hearings. Imagine local officials defying the Senate? Should we allow this to happen at all, much more continue?” he added.

Pimentel noted a number of resource persons have avoided subpoena, while others have defied it outright.

He said the hearings of the subcommittee have all been covered by the resolution filed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and are not limited to the issue of the parking building.

The third part of the resolution, Pimentel said, was even “flexible” because it covers other related anomalies.

“We will have to uphold the power and authority of the Senate and recommend soon some disciplinary measures on some personalities,” Pimentel said.

Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, for his part, said the case of Binay would serve as the acid test for the administration of President Aquino and his “tuwid na daan” or straight path policy.

He said the administration’s pursuit of cases against former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, former chief justice Renato Corona and Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr. was not that difficult considering these personalities were not allied with the President.

In contrast, Cayetano said Binay is a close family friend of Aquino and so it would be more difficult for him to pursue possible cases against him.

“Policies are always easy to apply on competitors or enemies but hard to apply to friends. By doing anything that helps Binay, he is not helping a friend but saying that the tuwid na daan is not that serious,” Cayetano said.

Just like Pimentel, Cayetano said whatever delays are seen in the investigation of the Blue Ribbon subcommittee are due to the lack of cooperation by the camp of the Vice President.

He said the problem is not with the Senate but with the attitude of the Vice President, who he said has been preventing some of the key witnesses from attending the hearings and not submitting the required evidence.

Cayetano said the Senate would not be cowed or affected by statements such as those coming from the President and would continue to conduct its hearings on issues related to the Vice President.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, for his part, said he is confident the President is aware of how things work in the Senate and he has no control over how the senators and committees go about their business.

“President Aquino was also a senator once. He knows how things work as well as the culture in the Senate. I am certain that Senators (Teofisto) Guingona and Pimentel have heard what the President said. I am sure they will consider that in the process of their decision making,” he said.

Drilon said the President called him up to relay the request of the Vice President to stop the investigations being conducted by the Blue Ribbon subcommittee.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte also said there is nothing wrong with President Aquino calling on Drilon to relay the request of the Vice President to stop the probe on the corruption allegations against him.

She said the President merely informed Drilon about Binay’s request and did not pressure him to grant it.

“The President made it clear that he was conveying a message. He was asked to convey the message. He said yes. He conveyed the message,” Valte said.

“The President did not ask for anything from Senate President Drilon. A message was conveyed. Let’s draw the distinction between pressure, between asking to do something, and merely being a conduit to relay a message,” she added.

Valte said Aquino did not violate the separation of powers among co-equal branches of government.

“We do not see anything improper about the President conveying a message,” Valte said.

“Is there anything in the Constitution that says that the two leaders cannot speak? Or is there anything in the Constitution that specifically says that they cannot discuss matters involving other officials?” she asked.

Aquino said in Beijing on Tuesday that he would prefer the Senate investigation into Binay’s alleged anomalies be finished as soon as possible to finally be able to charge or absolve people based on evidence.

He stressed there were problems that must be addressed now and that must be done by next year.

Aquino said the government must focus on rebuilding the communities destroyed last year by Typhoon Yolanda and measures to prevent the entry of the Ebola virus into the country.

Aquino said he and Binay were still talking and that the Vice President told him he was going through some hard times.

“I told him ‘between the two of us, you are in the position to know if there is truth to the allegations’ and he asked me: ‘what would you advise me?’ Then I told him: ‘how can I advise you on what to do since you know all these things compared to what I know?’” Aquino told reporters in Filipino.

Aquino, however, noted the Senate investigation on Binay must not be done in “dribs and drabs” since there were many economic bills that must be passed along with the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.

He stressed there must be a balance between politics and responsibilities.

Salgado said the senators leading the probe do not care much for the presumption of innocence, which has been evident from the start.

“These inquisitors are blinded by their prejudgment and consumed by their obsession to malign Vice President Binay that we seriously doubt if they would heed the words of the President,” Salgado said.

Salgado said the fact that the subcommittee scheduled another hearing on Nov. 17 – the first day of budget deliberations at the Senate – “shows where their priorities lie.”

“We also doubt if the senators would feel any shame that the President had to remind them that there is much legislative work to be done, especially the approval of the 2015 budget,” he said.

Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, interim president of Binay’s political party United Nationalist Alliance, said he expects the extended Senate hearings against the Vice President to continue “in aid of demolition,” not in aid of legislation.

Binay has repeatedly refused to attend Senate hearings on various corruption allegations against him, saying he had been pre-judged by senators.

Meanwhile, the principal of the Makati Science High School appealed to the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee not to hold its inspection of the school’s new building tomorrow as it would disrupt classes.

 MSHS principal Evangelina Apolinario said she received a letter on Tuesday from Pimentel informing her the subcommittee intends to hold an ocular inspection of the new school building at 9 a.m.

Apolinario said she wrote Pimentel last Tuesday and requested the inspection should be done over the weekend so as not to disrupt classes.

In her letter, Apolinario also expressed concern that if the inspection of the school’s premises was done on a weekday, it would have some adverse effects on the students.

“We would like to spare our students from needless anxiety and other adverse effects they may suffer if they witness the actual inspection of their school facilities,” Apolinario said.

 The Blue Ribbon subcommittee during its hearing last Nov. 6 announced its intention to conduct an ocular inspection of the new MSHS building in relation to its ongoing investigation of the alleged overprice in the construction of the Makati City Hall Building II. – Aurea Calica, Helen Flores, Alexis Romero, Mike Frialde