Junjun Binay to Trillanes: Being a senator not a license to destroy reputations

Former Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay on Tuesday welcomed the decision of a trial court to convict former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV of libel over the latter’s statements amid the Makati parking building issue in 2015.

In a statement, Binay said he hopes the decision of the court would put an end to Trillanes’ “dirty politics.”

“The decision is a reminder to Trillanes that being a senator is not a license to destroy reputations. He has clearly abused his power as a senator and the decision establishes that beyond doubt,” the former mayor said.

Judge Andres Soriano of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148 on Monday ordered Trillanes to pay a fine of P100,000. Trillanes must also pay P500,000 to Binay for the moral damage caused and the costs of suit, the court said.

The ruling stemmed from Trillanes’ media interview on April 7, 2015 in which he claimed that Binay’s camp bribed then-Court of Appeals justices Jose Reyes Jr. and Francisco Acosta in exchange for blocking the suspension order issued by the Office of the Ombudsman against him over the alleged overpriced Makati City Hall Building 2.

Soriano said Trillanes should have refrained from making such “grave allegations” against Binay and his family “until after the proper verification was completed and the appropriate resolution was filed before the Senate.”

“Making and releasing the subject statements absent a serious verification and investigation is recklessness bordering on a disregard of what is true or false,” the decision stated.

Trillanes has said the libel conviction was “the price to pay for standing up against very powerful people.” He also indicated that he would appeal the ruling. 

“We intend to exhaust all legal remedies to overturn this ruling. Regardless, we will not let this legal setback discourage us in pursuing our advocacy to purge our government of corrupt and abusive public officials,” he said.

Trillanes led Senate hearings from August 2014 to January 2016 into corruption allegations against then-Vice President Jejomar Binay and his family. — RSJ, GMA News