PNoy accepts VP Binay’s resignation from Cabinet

President Benigno Aquino III has accepted Vice President Jejomar Binay's resignation from his Cabinet posts, Malacañang said Monday.

In a statement, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said Aquino received Binay's resignation letter on Monday afternoon.

"[Executive] Secretary [Paquito] Ochoa gave the letter to the President, following which the President called up Vice President Binay to confirm his resignation," Coloma said.

The Palace official added that Ochoa "will formalize acceptance of the Vice President’s resignation."

Last November, Aquino said Binay could leave his Cabinet after the vice president said the administration was "still not doing things right" after more than four years.

The President has not always accepted resignations from Cabinet officials. In 2013, Aquino rejected Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla's resignation, and did the same with Budget Secretary Florencio Abad's similar offer to step down last year.

Binay tendered his irrevocable resignation earlier in the day. He served as presidential adviser for OFW affairs and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chairman.

Binay's resignation came over a week after Aquino ruled out endorsing the vice president for the 2016 presidential race.

Binay is the presumptive standard-bearer of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) next year, while Aquino chairs the ruling Liberal Party.

VP Binay gives up hope on PNoy's nod

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Monday said Vice President Jejomar Binay's decision to resign from the Cabinet shows that he has "given up on hopes for PNoy's endorsement."

Early this month, Binay was candid in saying that he was still hoping for President Benigno Aquino III's endorsement in the 2016 presidential elections, despite their leading different political parties.

"It's only proper from him to do it. It leaves him free to criticize the administration. It also shows that he has given up on hopes for PNoy's endorsement based on past friendship," Belmonte, a vice chairman of the administration Liberal Party, said in a text message.

Vice President Binay has tendered his resignation from Aquino's Cabinet, his office said Monday.

Parañaque City Rep. Gustavo Tambunting, a member of Binay-led United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), said Binay's resignation should not be viewed as an "abandonment of his duties" nor a "capitulation to politics."

"It should be seen as his effort to make a distinction between him and this administration. This will also quell any talk about him using government resources during the upcoming campaign," he said.

Iloilo Rep. Jerry Treñas, deputy chair of the Liberal Party Visayas bloc, said he was not surprised because Binay has already declared his intention to run for president in 2016.

"I felt it was only a question of time that he was resigning from the Cabinet to officially and formally assume the position of head of the opposition party and be its official candidate for president," he said.

Start of election season

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a critic of the Vice President, saw the resignation as "a very positive political development."

“Finally! This is a very positive political development. Now, there is no more inconsistency in the 'tuwid na daan' slogan of the PNoy administration,” he said.

“More importantly, it can now go all-out against Vice President Binay,” he added.

Trillanes was the one who filed the resolution that initiated the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee investigation on the corruption allegations against Binay during his stint as Makati City mayor.

Senator Francis Escudero said Binay’s move “signals the so-called gun start of the 2016 elections where the appointed officials begin resigning from their appointive posts in order to concentrate on their respective campaigns.” Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, for his part, said Binay's decision did not surprise him, noting the proximity of the elections.

VP Binay tired of getting hit

Rep. Binay, in a radio interview, said her father resigned from Aquino's Cabinet because he was tired and wanted to be free from the constraints of being part of the administration.
 
She also said her father had been holding back on criticizing the Aquino government because he was part of the Cabinet.
 
"Alam ninyo ho iyong parang boxing na lagi ka na lang sinusuntok pero 'di ka makasuntok pabalik? Iyon ho ang sinasabi kong pagod. Ginawa po siyang punching bag," Rep. Binay told radio dzMM.
 
The lawmaker added that VP Binay, the opposition's presumptive presidential bet for the 2016 polls, can begin speaking freely against the administration now that he has been "liberated."
 
"Ngayon, makakapagbigay sya ng polisiya niya. He can now freely criticize the government kung saan nagkukulang," the vice president's daughter said.

VP Binay's resignation was announced hours after Pulse Asia released the results of its latest survey showing Binay as the most trusted top government official.

Binay, who served as Makati mayor for several terms before running for vice president in 2010, has repeatedly expressed his intention to run for president in the 2016 elections.

Hits and misses

In February, Binay reported that the Home Development Mutual (Pag-IBIG) Fund, one of the agencies under the HUDCC which Binay also chairs, achieved in 2014 its highest gross and net income in its 34-year history, at P30.68 billion and P16.22 billion, respectively.

He also said that Pag-IBIG’s total assets reached P376.09 billion which is 9.12 percent higher than the previous year.

Pag-IBIG also increased its membership to 14 million in May 2014 from 8.19 million in 2010.

However, in the series of Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee hearings on the corruption allegations against Binay, the vice president's critic, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, alleged that Pag-IBIG granted loans to four developers linked to Binay.

As adviser on OFW affairs, Binay interceded with foreign governments to ask for reprieve for Filipino migrants on death row.

Binay personally appealed to the Indonesian government to spare Mary Jane Veloso's life. Veloso was later given a reprieve last April 29.

On Tuesday, Marilou Ranario returned home after she was saved from the death penalty in Kuwait. She was detained for 10 years for killing her employer.

In March, however, Joven Esteva, 39, convicted for killing his employer and injuring his employer's son in 2007, was executed in Saudi Arabia. -BM/NB, GMA News