Remulla: VP Binay realized debate with Trillanes a disservice to Yolanda victims

The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay said Tuesday that pushing through with the debate with Senator Antonio Trillanes IV would be a disservice to the Yolanda victims.

 

“Now is not the time for talk but for action. The Vice President realized that engaging a debate with Senator Trillanes is a disservice to the millions who still have to recover from the Yolanda tragedy,” Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla, Binay's spokesperson for political concerns, said in a press statement.

 

He added that Binay is prioritizing the country over himself, “recovery over bickering, the people over himself.”

 

“He will be in the Visayas next week putting all his efforts into the task of housing given to him by the President. The truth of the allegations is now in the hands of the Ombudsman,” Remulla said.

 

Millions of families lost their houses when Yolanda, the strongest recorded typhoon to make landfall, hit central Philippines November last year. Binay is the head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).

Remulla's statement came hours after Binay himself disclosed earlier in the day that he was backing out of the debate with Trillanes, which had been scheduled on November 27.

“Huwag na natin ituloy. Ayoko na kung ganyan sinasabi niya (Trillanes)... Pangit naman yata na 'di pa nag-uumpisa, meron na agad paliwanag,” Binay told reporters.

Binay's remark came after he was asked to comment on Trillanes' claim that the Vice President had the advantage in the scheduled debate because he is a lawyer.

Curiously, it was Binay who had challenged Trillanes to a public debate.

Proper venue

 

Meanwhile, with the Senate hearing and the public debate now scratched out of the list of options for Binay to air his side, Malacañang deemed that the Ombudsman would be the proper venue for the Vice President to defend himself from the corruption allegations hurled against him.

 

“Obviously (the Ombudsman) will be a venue, some would call it a proper venue for someone who is accused of wrongdoing to be ventilate his defenses,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Binay said at press briefing Tuesday.

 

Plunder and graft complaints have already been filed against Binay, his son Makati Mayor Junjun Binay and  21 others before the Ombudsman in connection with the alleged overpriced Makati City Hall Building II.

The Senate blue ribbon subcommittee has been holding hearings on the controversial Makati building. Binay has twiced turned down invitations for him to attend the proceedings.

 

At the Palace briefing, Valte admitted that the debate was of interest to Malacañang and they would have monitored it had it pushed through.

 

Asked if they were disappointed with Binay’s backing out of the debate, Valte said the Palace respects the Vice President’s decision.

 

“We are pretty certain that the Vice President weighed all of his options when he made the decision not to push through with the scheduled debate. Perhaps there will be other opportunities for him to air his side. Of course, there are other venues available at least to Vice President who may want to share with the public his side of the story, other media outlets, other opportunities it will be up to him to assess that. We cannot dictate,” she said.

 

Binay has been accused of involvement in the alleged overpriced construction of Makati City Hall Building II, bid rigging, and receiving kickbacks from every transaction the Makati government entered into during his term as mayor.

 

He was also accused of owning a 350-hectare property in Rosario, Batangas and a log cabin in Tagaytay Highlands.

 

The Vice President has since denied all of these, insisting that these are part of an operation to discredit him and diminish his chances of winning in the 2016 presidential elections. — RSJ, GMA News