Grace Poe to Binay: Face Senate, answer allegations

Senator Grace Poe on Monday asked Vice President Jejomar Binay to face the Senate and personally answer the corruption allegations being hurled against him.

It was the first time Poe spoke about the Vice President in relation to the allegations of plunder and graft raised against him by his political opponents in Makati City.

“Para sa akin mapapatunayan lalo 'yan (honesty) kung magpakita siya at i-esplika niya ang mga paratang laban sa kanya hindi lamang yung mga tagapagsalita niya, kasi kahit ako hindi mapapagkaila na may pinagsamahan kami, kaibigan namin siya pero hindi rin namin siya nakakausap tungkol dito. Gusto rin namin malaman,” she said.

“Kaya nga ang hirap din mag-attend ng hearing na ang mismong pinaparatangan ay hindi sumasama, para bang nagsasalita ka sa likod ng taong 'yun,” Poe added.

Poe, a neophyte senator, recently rose in presidential preference surveys and placed second to Binay who has been consistently leading the polls. Binay's ratings have dropped in the wake of the corruption allegations against him.

Binay, Makati City's mayor for almost two decades, on Sunday, warned against voting for "inexperienced" leaders in the 2016 elections.

Asked if she felt alluded to, Poe on Monday said she was doing what she could to serve the country.

“Hindi ko naman ipagkakaila na ikumpara sa marami sa kanila, maikli lang ang karanasan ko sa gobyerno. Ang kasagutan ko simple lang: kalidad ng serbisyo, katapatan, kasama na rin ng paglilingkod nang magaling,” Poe said.

“Hindi naman sa pagbubuhat ng bangko [pero] sa ikli ng panahon na nasa gobyerno ako, sinikap ko naman na gumawa ng marami para makatulong lalo na sa mga pinakamahihirap nating kababayan na naapi at hindi naririnig,” she added.

GMA News Online sought reactions from the Binay camp but has yet to receive any as of posting time.

President Benigno Aquino III, who has repeatedly trumpeted the administration's supposed gains in good governance, has met with Poe and discussed the need to continue the reforms.

Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, the LP's expected standard-bearer in 2016, has also met with the senator.

“We broached the idea of continuing the things this administration has been trying to do. Now, in what capacity, hindi pa finalized iyon," Aquino told reporters recently.

The Senate has repeatedly asked Binay to attend the hearings to answer the allegations against him, but he refused to do so.

Whistleblowers have accused Binay, among others, of plunder and graft in connection with the alleged overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building II and the Makati Science High School.

The Court of Appeals recently issued a freeze order on 242 bank accounts and insurance policies belonging to Binay, members of his family and several close associates.

Binay has repeatedly denied the allegations and dismissed them as part of a vilification campaign against him.

Poe said she believes only Binay, a former Makati mayor, can give light regarding the accusations on the overpriced Makati buildings, his alleged illegal transactions, and others.

Binay was the campaign manager of Poe's father, the late actor and one-time presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr., in the 2004 elections.

Poe was a part of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance's senatorial lineup in 2013 but was eventually dropped early during the campaign period after she failed attend UNA's campaign rallies.

The same happened to Sen. Loren Legarda and Sen. Francis Escudero, who at first were also common candidates of the Liberal Party-led administration coalition and UNA. —KBK/NB, GMA News