BY SAMMY JULIAN
WE all know by this time that Vice President Jejomar Binay and his family have been accused of corruption in the alleged overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building 2 which reportedly cost P2.7 billion.
Renato Bondal and Nicolas Enciso — political rivals of the Binays in Makati — said the building should have cost only P700 million.
Their plunder complaint against the Binays formed the basis of the Senate inquiry.
However, Binay blamed politicking, especially instigated by potential rivals for the presidency in 2016, for the ongoing Senate investigation into the alleged overpricing in the construction of the building which a critic claimed was the country’s most expensive parking building.
Given that accusations were piling up in the Senate inquiry that has diverted public attention from urgent issues, the prudent thing to do was to file an impeachment complaint against the Vice President.
The impeachment process would put closure to the issue and refocus attention to urgent issues, such as countryside growth and urban traffic woes.
Besides, the Senate hearing on the allegedly overpriced 11-storey building was expected to lead to the filing of an impeachment complaint.
Binay should be open to the impeachment process since the President himself faced impeachment complaints that were eventually junked by the House justice committee.
We’re interested in the results of the investigation. But if you ask people from the province who regularly travels to Manila—from a cosmopolitan point of view, their judgment call is really for him to be impeached.
The accusations are so gross. And therefore, we really would rather go to the impeachment process so the Vice President can be cleansed. That’s the correct process.
After all, the senators have presented sufficient information on the allegations of overprice, and it is up to the House to take up any complaint if this is filed.
In the meantime, Binay and his family should answer the accusations hurled against them. They should not brush off corruption claims. It’s not enough to blame politicking.
Counter-accusations are not important. It is important to explain why the allegations are not true so they could also clear their name./PN
