2014: The year Binay's "corruption" was exposed
This is our final column for the Year 2014. Somehow last Monday, Dec. 29, the 5:30 PM mass we attended at the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish was just starting when we felt a sharp jolt, like someone suddenly dropped and knelt on the pew. Behind me was my son JV who whispered that it was an earthquake. True enough, when I checked the App on earthquakes on my iPhone, there was a 6.1 magnitude earthquake that struck somewhere southwest of Negros and Northwest of the Zamboanga Peninsula at a depth of 38 kms down below the sea.
Then later in the evening tropical storm Jangmi or in Philippine lingo Seniang made landfall near Sibonga, 50 kilometers south of Cebu City. Somehow PAGASA's predictions were way off as their tracking only showed that Seniang would hit Northern Mindanao.
But I didn't sleep early and waited out the storm, which hit Cebu at 2:00 AM. I was watching ABS-CBN and they never mentioned that this tropical storm would hit Cebu. Actually I relied on the charts posted on Facebook by my good friend, Chris Go, who showed his friends where the storm would pass. Yet he is not even a weather expert. Here we go again. PAGASA failed us totally.
This only tells you that we have to be more careful in the New Year 2015 because we can never rely on the bulletins issued by PAGASA. And as for the earthquake… unfortunately no one can predict earthquakes and the last one was quite close to us as it was in between Negros and Zamboanga del Norte. This only means that for next year we must take necessary precautions when it comes to Mother Nature. It reminds me of this new ad that came out of CNN… Nature doesn't need mankind, but mankind needs nature. This is enough thought to ponder for the coming New Year.
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I usually make a Year Ender for my last column of the year, but in the end the Year 2014 showed Filipinos the depth of the corruption from the highest officials in the Philippine government. You can say that the Man of the Year was Vice-President Jejomar Binay whose corruption was once spoken only in rumors in coffee houses but never made the front pages of our mainstream newspapers.
It all started with his overpriced 12-story Makati Office and parking building which was found to be more expensive than a 40-story building. This wouldn't have made the news had it not been for Binay's former vice mayor Ernesto Mercado who turned against the vice president after the untimely death of former Makati City Engineer Nelson Morales who was reportedly gunned down by an assassin.
As of press time, no one knows who had Morales killed but it was enough for Mercado to surface and openly accuse Vice Pres. Binay of corruption in that Makati building scam. What is significant here is that Mercado himself admitted as to how much money he made from that deal, and consequently how much the vice president also made.
With this revelation, it can now be said that the majority of the buildings constructed during the time of then Mayor Jejomar Binay must have also been rigged. But then no one, not even the Commission on Audit questioned the Binays. This validates what I've always written in the past -- that the Philippines has become one of the most corrupt countries in the world despite the presence of COA. This gives credence to what people say about COA -- Commission? Or Audit!
The Vice-President said in his Facebook account that "the worse is over"… for him. The truth is, Vice-Pres. Binay never answered any of the allegations thrown against him. He's usual remark is -- it's all lies. But when invited to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, VP Binay conveniently excused himself and flew to Cebu as if there was something more important happening here. He knows that the ignorant masa wouldn't care less if he was corrupt.
So for the next year, we expect to hear more stories about corruption involving the vice president who is already on the campaign trail. No doubt, VP Binay is hell-bent on becoming the next president of the Philippines.
Yes, he is going to be worse than Pres. Ferdinand Marcos who used the communist scourge to declare Martial Law all over the Philippines. Ask yourselves, did we have a communist insurgency in Cebu? Yet Marcos declared Martial Law throughout the country. Why do I say this? Surely you must have known that VP-Binay has been head of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines for over 20-years now. Why couldn't he relinquish power? The Binay plan was to use scouting to have visibility until he attains his political dream.
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