Sen. Binay seeks Senate CCTV footage to see if Trillanes bullied resource speakers

Senator Nancy Binay wants to know if the conversation between Senator Antonio Trillanes and officers of the general contractor of the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building II, during and after Senate hearings was not meant to intimidate them.

Binay, daughter of Vice President Jejomar Binay and sister of Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr., has requested the Senate sergeant-at-arms for closed-circuit television footage of the Blue Ribbon committee.

The request came after lawyer Rogelio Peig, assistant vice president for legal of Hilmarc’s Construction Corporation, said that he and the company’s president Robert Henson were approached by Trillanes.

Vice President Binay earlier accused Trillanes of bullying a resource person in the hearing on the city hall building, construction of which began while the vice president was Makati mayor.

'Conversation was friendly'

During the committee's Sept. 4 hearing, Peig said the conversation with Trillanes was friendly. Trillanes denied at the same hearing that he tried to intimidate the Hilmarc’s executives.

In a letter dated Sept. 4, 2014, Senator Binay requested Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Jose Balajadia Jr. for CCTV footage taken during the Aug. 20 and 26 hearings.

“Siguro tingnan natin dun sa video, kung makikita talaga kung friendly o hindi yung pag-uusap nilang dalawa. The footages will confirm or not whether a colleague had bullied witnesses into the ongoing hearings,” she said.

Binay said the matter should be a concern of the Senate since it involves the conduct of a senator and his treatment of a resource person whose testimony discredited the allegations of overpricing.

“Can you just imagine kung ako ginawa ko yun kay (former Vice Mayor Ernesto) Mercado o kaya kay (former general services department head Mario) Hechanova, I’ll be accused of influencing yung resource person,” she said.

Alleged cake supplier

Senator Binay's name has also been mentioned in the hearings, which the Binay family insists is motivated by politics.

Hechanova said at the last hearing that then Makati Mayor Binay would sometimes call him to follow up payments for cakes that the city gives its senior citizens. Former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado has said Senator Binay used to supply the cakes to the city government.

Senator Binay has repeatedly denied the charge adding she does not even know how to bake. She said, though, that she is considering going into the cake business, adding in jest that the hearings serve as free publicity for her planned venture.

“Pagkatapos nito talagang magnenegosyo na ako ng cake. Talagang yun yung next venture ko, to open a bakeshop," she said last week. — JDS, GMA News