Binay defends security aide

Makati City mayoral candidate Jejomar Binay has come to the aid of an official of the city who was recently involved in the alleged mauling of a TV crew of GMA-7 inside a police precinct last week.

Binay defended his longtime security head, City Business Permit and License Division chief, Lito Glean, who was accused of punching a cameraman of the GMA-7 show Imbestigador.

Based on the affidavit of the cameraman, Mannix Lazaro, and segment producer Dave Llavanes, they were both mauled inside Police Community Precinct II in Guadalupe last Saturday morning.

The two crewmen were at the precinct to do a follow-up story on an earlier incident involving Edwin Glean, a nephew of the Makati official, who was arrested for threatening a 17-year-old student.

According to the two complainants, Lito Glean along with Edwin’s father Esting, arrived at the precinct and without warning, punched them and threatened them with harm.

But Binay told reporters that it was Lito who was at the receiving end of the incident as he claimed that the cameraman was harassing him. He noted that Lazaro kept on shoving the camera in the face of Glean and even berated the official in front of the policemen.

Precinct II commander, Chief Inspector Pompeo Dungca, corroborated the claims of Binay that the actual incident was the opposite of what the crewmen alleged.

Meanwhile, some 4,000 dismissed causal employees of the Makati City Mayor’s Action Center yesterday lashed at the Office of the Ombudsman over its alleged snail-paced probe of a graft complaint they filed against Binay and five other city government officials.

Represented by their lawyer Rene Bondal, the dismissed employees accused the Office of the Ombudsman of allegedly "sitting" on the complaint they had filed on Sept. 18, 1999.

The case stemmed from the alleged failure of Binay, his wife Elenita, now the incumbent city mayor, city treasurer Luz Yamane, personnel administrator Mario Rodriguez, city administrator Nicanor Santiago and former MAC head Ernesto Mercado to remit contributions collected from the dismissal employees to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Phil—Health and the Government Services Insurance System (GSIS).

According to Bondal, the city government between 1996 to 1998 collected at least P115 million from the casual employees as their alleged monthly contributions to the GSIS, BIR, Pag-Ibig and PhilHealth.

However, when the MAC casual employees were dismissed in September 1999 after the budget allegedly run out, they found out that the collected contributions did not reach the said agencies.

The dismissed casual employees also found out that their names were not even included in the roster of members of the three agencies.