Makati to Taguig: Don’t politicize BGC case

MANILA, Philippines - The Makati City government yesterday asked the Taguig City government not to politicize the recent decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) that awarded control and jurisdiction of the contested Fort Bonifacio area, including Bonifacio Global City, from Taguig to Makati.

Makati issued the statement after Taguig sought the inhibition of CA Associate Justice Marlene Gonzales-Sison, who penned the decision, from the case.

Taguig questioned Sison’s impartiality since her husband, lawyer Casimiro Sison, ran and won as a councilor in Manila under the United Nationalist Alliance. One of UNA’s leaders is Vice President and former Makati mayor Jejomar Binay, father of incumbent Mayor Junjun Binay.

“To inject politics into a boundary dispute is clearly meant to muddle the issue and divert attention from Taguig’s failure to show concrete evidence. It is unfortunate that the names of Vice President Jojo Binay, former President Joseph Estrada and former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile have been dragged into this issue,” Makati spokesperson Joey Salgado said.

Enrile, Binay and Estrada are UNA’s three leaders.

Salgado said lawyers of the Makati city government will answer every point made by Taguig City in its petition to inhibit.

Salgado also said that Makati is hopeful that the situation will not be made an extension of the “Enrile-Cayetano tiff in the Senate” as he noted that even the name of Enrile’s chief of staff was mentioned in Taguig’s petition to inhibit. The Taguig mayor’s husband, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, has repeatedly locked horns with Enrile.