By Ducky Paredes
MY president finally said it, even if he was practically forced to do so. Finally, to various incessant questions from the Malacañang press he said it – If Vice President Jejomar Binay is unhappy with the policies of the administration, then he’s free to leave, President Benigno Aquino III said yesterday.
The reporters wanted to know whether “it is time for the Vice President to leave the Cabinet or... stay.” The question had to be asked since even President Aquino cites reports that Binay has been “critical” of his administration.
In a speech before state prosecutors last October, Binay slammed Aquino’s allies whom he accused of plotting a demolition job against him. Then, Binay criticized the administration’s controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program, and the “unfair” treatment of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The Binay camp has also said that some in the Aquino cabinet were the ones behind the “political” campaign against him. (Mayor Joseph Estrada corrected Binay when he said that, knowing Secretary Mar Roxas to be a gentleman, Erap did not think that Mar would stoop that low,
“If the Vice President did say those things, then there are just two things we need to remember: number one if he thinks we aren’t doing enough, he is a member of the Cabinet then he should advice us: how can we improve the system?,” Aquino said.
“That’s not a choice, he is a member of the Cabinet. And if he thinks our direction is wrong, then he is also free to no longer join our movement.”
Aquino noted that he has not heard Binay – in any of the Cabinet meetings – offer solutions to the problems he cited. “At the minimum, he is the Vice President of the land. He has criticisms. to be constructive he has to have solutions and if he has some, I have not heard these solutions in these Cabinet meetings. So if he has solutions he should’ve shared them. The question is: why has he not shared them?,” he said.
Aquino stressed that point: “Let me just reiterate: if you think the government is doing something wrong, you’re a member of the government, you are the second highest official in the land, you have an obligation to share your knowledge on sustainable solutions if you feel you have any.”
Binay and Aquino both go a long way. Binay was the first OIC mayor appointed by Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, after the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.
This may be something that,, looking down from where she now is and listening to the revelations in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, President Cory must be shaking her head at what, unknowingly, she unleashed on Makati and the world when she made her first political appointment at the local level.
Binay, a family friend of the Aquinos, has all but announced his plan to run for President in 2016. Aquino has yet to name the candidate he will be campaigning for. The ruling Liberal Party (LP) is hoping the President will endorse Binay’s opponent in the 2010 vice presidential race, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II. However, for Mar Roxas to have a chance at winning, he has to make himself more relevant by taking about issues that the common man wants to listen to.
That and the fact that Binay is caught in the biggest corruption scandal to hit him and his family in their nearly three decades in power. I always wondered how the Binay family became a family of millionaires (or maybe even billionaires) from working as public servants. The Vice President is now the subject of a Senate probe, which is investigating alleged corruption charges against him during his time as mayor of Makati. He also faces plunder charges before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Binay denies all accusations. Instead of explaining his side, he and his spokespersons have accused Aquino’s party mates in the LP of being behind the exposés against him in an effort to hurt his chances in the 2016 presidential race. (Heck, if Aquino’s boys made all of the charges against Binay, shouldn’t Binay be able to talk his way out of his situation? Yet, he makes no explanations nor does he have any explanation on how he got so rich!)
Aquino says Binay has been good at his job as the government’s housing czar. “Number one, this (allegations of corruption) happened before his role in the Cabinet. Number two, if we talk about his assignments in regard to housing, I think a lot of people would agree the housing sector has a lot of achievements under his watch,” Aquino says.
Aquino also says that Binay “has the right to presumption of innocence until proven guilty,” adding that the Senate probe is just one of the processes that need to be undertaken. (I disagree Mr. President. Our laws say that when one cannot explain where his wealth came from or how he got so rich, one has “unexplained wealth” which can be confiscated by the government since the presumption is that the public servant must have taken it from government funds!)
The President also had this to say about the Senate probe on Binay: “It’s a credit also to the current regime that it is investigating, no matter what your status is.”
Binay earlier sought a meeting with the President to discuss the probe. Aquino and Palace insiders said that in that meeting, Binay asked if the Senate investigation could be stopped pending the ongoing investigation by the Ombudsman.
Binay got a “no” on that one from the President.
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There is poverty all over. The United States actually has 45 million Americans living below the poverty level. Those below their poverty line, however, are only 12% of the population, while almost half of the Philippine population are poor or believe themselves to be poor.
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