VICE President Jejomar Binay said Tuesday the Office of the Ombudsman had conspired with his political opponents to wreck his presidential bid in the 2016 national elections.
“It is very clear that they want to herald to the media the lies and tall tales against me. This was what we have been saying before: All noise but without proof,” Binay said in a statement.
“If they can do it to me, what more for the ordinary people?”
Binay’s spokesman Rico Quicho accused the Ombudsman of engaging in a trial by publicity and demolition by perception to ensure the Liberal Party’s standard bearer Manuel Roxas II gained from it.
The Office of the Ombudsman earlier announced it had found probable cause to indict Binay, his son dismissed Makati Mayor Junjun Binay, and 22 other people for corruption over the alleged anomalies in the construction of the Makati City Hall parking building.
“The timing was clearly political because the decision of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales comes on the same day the elder Binay filed his certificate of candidacy for his 2016 presidential bid,” Quicho said.
But Malacañang on Tuesday denied it had any hand in the Ombudsman’s decision dismissing Junjun Binay over the Makati City Hall parking building.
“The Office of the Ombudsman is an independent constitutional body over which the Executive branch has neither authority or jurisdiction,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a text message.
“This administration has always adhered to the rule of law and it is best that those involved address the case or cases they face before the appropriate forum.”
Quicho, said they had already received a copy of the Ombudsman’s order indicting the Binays.
He said the order had no basis as it was based on the “lies” that came out in the investigation of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee on the alleged anomalies committed by the Binay family.
Binay said that, after reading the recommendation, he was amused but expressed sadness at the same time because it had been more than a year of Senate hearings but nothing had been proven against him and his family.
“According to the Ombudsman’s findings, I was charged because I did not review the documents and committed minor lapses. There are no concrete basis for these allegations,” Binay said.
He said signing documents were merely a ministerial task of a mayor.
He said before a document reached the mayor, it had already been reviewed and processed by the heads of the concerned departments.