By Marichu A. Villanueva
The Philippine Star
A few months back, I just shrugged it off when Vice President Jejomar Binay confided an alleged sinister plot to get him out of office. That was the time while the impeachment trial of erstwhile Chief Justice Renato Corona was still taking place at the Senate. As Vice President, Binay is also one of the impeachable officials under our country’s 1987 Constitution.
I thought then that Binay was just being paranoid about this supposed ouster plot against him. In fact, he told me it’s not only him but also Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile who is being targeted purportedly by the same group.
Binay seemed to be on the loop and thus was visibly bothered. That early, Binay apparently has already sensed he was being lined up for ouster after Corona’s impeachment. Corona was convicted and removed as chief justice last May 29.
As far as his own sources are concerned, Binay believes this power bloc is the same group that orchestrated the impeachment of Corona. While he would not give specific names, Binay merely described the group behind this ouster plot as those who up to now have apparently not accepted his being part of the present administration now controlled by the ruling Liberal Party (LP) of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino.
When they took office in June 2010, Aquino gave a Cabinet post to his Vice President as head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and concurrent presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Binay ran and won under the coalition of his own PDP-Laban with the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) headed by former President Joseph Estrada during the May 2010 elections. Estrada lost to Aquino in the presidential derby but Binay won the vice presidential race against LP chieftain ex-Sen. Mar Roxas II.
Roxas filed a formal protest and questioned the victory of Binay before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) that is chaired by the chief justice of the Supreme Court (SC). Roxas’ poll protest, handled previously by Corona as chairman of the PET, remains pending.
With Corona now out of the picture, the plotters were purportedly grooming to install a new chief justice identified closely with the Roxas camp.
As of this writing, the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) wound down its vetting process and public interviews of the 20 nominees aspiring to become the new chief justice. After its voting is done, the JBC is expected to come up with a shortlist of nominees anytime now. From this JBC shortlist submitted to him, President Aquino would appoint the new chief justice.
With that process of selection, it still perplexed me how Corona’s removal as chief justice figured in this plot to oust Binay from the Aquino Cabinet or impeach him as Vice President. As to how the plotters would engineer Binay’s ouster rendered this scenario far out a few months ago.
But when Congress resumed session last July 23, the usual rumors on a leadership coup against Enrile as Senate president cropped up. Fortunately for Enrile, Binay claimed, the ouster group still did not have the magic number, or 13 senators, to vote for a new Senate chief.
Then last week a news report said Commission on Audit (COA) commissioner Heidi Mendoza has supposedly started an “initial” investigation on Binay. It turned out to be an old case previously investigated by Mendoza when Binay was still mayor of Makati City.
Binay questioned the people behind the “leak” to the media on the new investigation initiated by COA on him when it was supposed to be “confidential.” Binay said Mendoza was surely targeting him, not his namesake son, incumbent Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. Mendoza was then the resident auditor in Makati City when she first investigated the elder Binay on this case.
President Aquino promoted Mendoza as COA commissioner in April last year as a reward for her testimony before the Senate hearing on the questioned plea bargaining agreement of former military comptroller Gen. Carlos Garcia as approved by former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. Incidentally, Gutierrez resigned before Aquino’s allies in the 15th Congress could succeed in impeaching her. By the way, rumor has it that Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales wants to live a more peaceful life abroad as Philippine ambassador.
Anyway, the Vice President bewailed Mendoza’s auditing anew the projects during the 23 years that he was mayor of Makati as part of a demolition campaign against him. It was apparently part of a plan to “take him out” by December, he added.
Binay completely believes that President Aquino has nothing to do with this alleged “demolition job” against him by the Mendoza-led COA probe.
Adding to his woes, perhaps, is Binay’s continuing high popularity rating while that of P-Noy and his administration has already reached its peak and has started to decline. Since they took office, Binay, to date, has topped the performance and approval ratings in the opinion surveys of both the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia.
Detractors of the Vice President stepped up their ante. Binay is now being painted as an opposition after his PDP-Laban and Estrada’s PMP joined forces again for the May 2013 mid-term elections. They formed what is now called the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) that will field its own 12-man senatorial ticket and will put up together its local candidates.
As it is right now, the leaders of UNA hold the most powerful positions in government. Binay and Enrile, respectively, are the second and third highest elected officials in the country today. The next highest elected official of UNA is Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada. So it’s not unusual for LP and other administration allies to feel insecure with this present set-up.
A little birdie chirped that Mendoza’s renewed bid to pin down Binay might be more of a personal survival mission. You see, Mendoza’s confirmation has been bypassed several times already by the Commission on Appointments (CA). Her appointment has been pending before the CA sub-committee on constitutional bodies. This is chaired by Jinggoy who happens to be Binay’s ally. So do the math!
But now it seems what started as loose talk on a purported Binay ouster plot got vividly back to life. Maybe, Binay’s worst fears have apparently become a reality. Is this a self-fulfilling prophecy?
The Philippine Star
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