Corruption at the top of the Aquino gov't
Last Monday, the Inquirer headlined this story, "Binay to defend self 'Presidential' style." So the whole Philippines waited for the vice president to appear before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee so he could defend himself. But instead, he flew to Cagayan Province purportedly to help the victims of Typhoon "Luis." VP Binay conveniently found a storm as an excuse to get away from the bigger storm he had to endure before a Senate hearing. Now this isn't quite Presidential if you ask me!
Well Neal Cruz, the eminent columnist from the Inquirer also wrote about VP Binay in his Monday article and let me reprint what he said, "The dumbest mistake of Jejomar Binay was to double-cross his vice mayor and bagman. The second big mistake was to allow himself and his family to become too greedy. And the third was to aspire to be president of this country.
Binay had promised his vice mayor, Ernesto Mercado, that he would be the next mayor of Makati when his own term expired. Binay broke his promise and made his son Junjun the mayor instead. If you were Mercado, wouldn't you be infuriated and try to repay his treachery?
The stupid thing was that Mercado was his bagman, the aide who delivered duffel bags of money from real estate developers and contractors to him and his wife and children. There were separate bags for each of them. As his closest aide, Mercado knew everything. Isn't it dumb to double-cross such a person? If Binay had remained loyal to Mercado, the latter would not be singing his heart out now and Binay's secrets would still be secrets today."
Indeed there's a lesson to be made here that Neal Cruz tried to explain…that greedy people or crooks should always trust their loyal people, especially their bagmen. Look at the case of Janet Lim Napoles, if she didn't have a fight with her cousin Ben-Hur Luy, the Filipino people wouldn't have known of their nefarious activities stealing the people's money through our senators and congressmen through fake NGO's and Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, and Sen. Bong Revilla would not be incarcerated at this time. Yet not all of the crooks have been arrested!
So back to VP Binay. If he is in knee-deep trouble, it is because his former bagman and Vice Mayor Mercado has openly admitted to their crime. At least Vice Mayor Mercado can seek entry into the Witness Protection Program of the Department of Justice to escape prosecution. No matter how much VP Binay cries out that all this is politically motivated, the fact remains that a crime was committed while he was mayor of Makati. Sure he can marshal the poor of Makati to rally on his side. But that won't change the facts that the Makati Office and Parking building is so much overpriced…someone made a handsome profit out of it and Vice Mayor Mercado is one helluvah witness against the Vice President.
Even the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines has gotten into the act when in a radio interview over Radyo Veritas, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Public Affairs declared "It is not enough for the Binays to say that they are victims of politicking, it is important to explain why the allegations are not true." But how the hell can VP Binay explain the P2.6 billion cost of the 12-story Makati Office and Parking building when this is put in contrast with buildings as tall as 40 storeys having the same cost?
That's not all, what about the overpriced multi-cabs that VP Binay bought for the City of Makati. Buying multi-cabs may be small change as compared to his corrupt P2.6 billion office and parking building, but people who own multicabs know how much they bought theirs from the dealers in Cebu. Vice Mayor Mercado said that those multicabs were bought at P230,000 each from a Cebu distributor.
Then there are the multicabs that Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano bought which cost a whopping P490,000 apiece! It would have been better if the City of Taguig bought a brand new Mirage, which is selling at that price. Didn't we tell you that the corruption involving multicabs was merely the tip of the corruption iceberg?
Finally, did you know that the Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the dismissal of Professional Regulation Commission chairperson Teresita Manzala after it found prima facie evidence that she conspired with a developer closely identified with Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Jr.? Manzala apparently entered into a "Sweetheart deal" with New San Jose Builders, Inc. when she transferred the PRC offices to the Victoria Towers Commercial Center owned by businessman Jose "Jerry" Acuzar, brother-in-law of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Jr. Come now, isn't Ochoa very close to Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III? How can Pres. PNoy claim that he is honest when corrupt people surround him? Didn't we tell you of that saying, "Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are!"
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