VP Binay no-show at Senate hearing

Published November 6, 2014 10:22am

(Updated 1:48 p.m.) Vice President Jejomar Binay failed to attend on Thursday the hearing the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee set just for him.

Binay arrived in Cebu shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday, GMA Cebu reported.

.@VPJojoBinay, lumapag sa Mactan-Cebu Int'l Airport bandang 10:15 ng umaga. | via Norman Mendoza, RGMA Cebu

— DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) November 6, 2014

JUST IN: VP Binay just arrived in Mactan Intl Airport in Cebu; snubs Senate blue ribbon mother body probe today | via @maloutalosig

— GMA News (@gmanews) November 6, 2014

Binay has been scheduled to take part in several activities in Cebu on Thursday and Friday, GMA Cebu's Bobby Nalzaro said on dzBB radio.

Binay was invited by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee to shed light on the alleged overpricing of the construction cost of the Makati City Hall Building II. The said project was built during Binay's term as Makati City mayor.

In an interview with a radio station in Cebu City on Thursday, Binay however said there was nothing irregular with the construction of the Makati City Hall Building II and other transactions of the Makati City government during his term as its mayor.

He added the construction of the controversial 11-storey building passed procurement laws and bidding procedures.

“Meron tayong procurement laws na sinunod. Nagkaroon tayo ng bidding,” Binay said.

Binay sends letter

The Office of the Vice President on Thursday sent a letter to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV confirmed the presence of the letter, but refused to disclose its contents.

Trillanes, together with Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano and Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee, left the session upon receiving a copy of the letter.

A staff from the office of Guingona said Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco and lawyer JV Bautista were the ones who handed the Vice President's letter.

The committee, through chairman Guingona, decided to conduct a hearing specifically for Binay after the latter said he will consider attending if the mother committee will be the one to invite him.

Binay rejected the earlier invitations sent by the subcommittee, headed by Pimentel and usually attended by Cayetano and Trillanes, investigating the alleged overpriced construction of Makati City Hall Building II.

He said the subcommittee was unfair in its hearings and has already pre-judged him.

Binay has also lamented that the subcommittee has already diverted from its original topic and is now probing other allegations against him.

Aside from allegations of the supposedly overpriced building, such as bid rigging and receiving kickbacks from the transactions the Makati city government entered into during his term as mayor, Binay was also accused of owning a 350-hectare property in Rosario, Batangas and a log cabin in Tagaytay Highlands, neither of which he declared in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.

The Blue Ribbon Committee sent Binay the formal invitation last week.

Trillanes earlier said Binay's absence in the hearing only shows that he cannot be trusted. —Joel Locsin/KG/VC, GMA News

Tags: jejomarbinay, makaticityhallbuildingii, senate