MANILA – The Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed the dismissal from service of former Makati mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. and his perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
The CA’s eight division has found Binay guilty of serious dishonesty, grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service over his involvement in the anomalous procurement in the construction of the Makati Science High School Building.
Binay, however, is not yet giving up on his fight as he plans to file a motion for reconsideration for CA to overturn its verdict.
“My lawyers and I have agreed to immediately file a Motion for Reconsideration and exhaust all necessary legal means to prove my innocence,” Binay said in a statement. “I pray that the court will find merit in our motion.”
In a verdict by CA dated May 28, it said that Binay has entered into a contract with Hilmarc’s Construction Corp. during his time as Makati City mayor “despite glaring irregularities in the procurement of the construction services of Phase VI.”
Binay and his father, former vice president Jejomar Binay, face charges for graft and falsification of public documents before the Sandiganbayan for the criminal aspect of the case.
The CA dismissed three cases – those involving the P17.373-million procurement of architectural and engineering services from Infiniti Architectural Works; and the award of P394.140 million and P349.559 million to Hilmarc for the construction of Phases IV and V, respectively – on the basis of the condonation doctrine.
But the CA said the doctrine was not applicable in Phase VI of the building since the contract for it was entered into and implemented during Junjun’s second term as mayor from 2013 to 2016.
“Although it was previously held by the Supreme Court that as long as the contract was entered into during a prior term, acts which were done to implement the same, even if done during a succeeding term, do not negate the application of the condonation doctrine in favor of the elective official, the same does not apply here as the contract for Phase VI was entered into with Hilmarc when Binay Jr. was already serving his second term as Mayor in Makati City and not during his previous term,” the CA held.
Junjun recently ran for Makati mayor in the May 2019 elections but lost to his sister, reelectionist Abigail Binay./PN
