IBA, ZAMBALES—Dismissed Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay, Jr. on Wednesday said the timing of the recent attacks against him and his family were “suspect” and meant to shame his father opposition United Nationalist Alliance presidential bet Vice President Jejomar Binay to stop his soaring ratings as these were being done during survey period and at the onset of the presidential debate.
Binay was reacting to the Sandiganbayan move to issue a hold departure order against him while the Ombudsman has been pressuring the Commission on Audit to come out with its “special audit report” on the vice president.
At least 13 other Makati city officials were also issued an HDO, preventing them from leaving the country.
“My father proves to have a good showing in the surveys. Surveys are being held almost every week now,” Binay told reporters covering the Binay camp.
Binay was referring to the latest Pulse Asia survey that found the vice president and his opponent Senator Grace Poe sharing the lead at 26 percent and 25 percent, respectively, with Binay taking the top spot in Metro Manila at 33 percent as against Poe’s and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte at 23 percent.
Vice President Binay’s spokesman Rico Quicho said he would ask the Pulse Asia to explain how the rounding off of the results of the surveys was done.
“Senator Poe got 25.6 percent and they rounded it off to 26 while VP Binay obtained 25.5 percent but they rounded it off to 25 percent. So the difference is not 1 percent but 0.1 percent only,” Quicho insisted.
“There will be a second presidential debate that is focused on the issue of corruption and they wanted to portray the vice president as engaged in such even if the administration’s accusations are baseless,” he added.
He described as “desperate” the Aquino administration’s attempts to derail his father’s presidential bid.
Binay said he would respect the process in the case of his hold departure order but that he did not have any plans to go abroad anytime soon.
He said if he needed to leave the country, he would just ask the court’s permission.
Binay said the Ombudsman’s putting pressure on the CoA was “highly questionable” considering that the audit was incomplete without the side of Makati City officials and the fact that the law provides that no audit can be done on politicians during election campaign period.
“Look, the timing is suspect again. They are running the surveys now. In a few weeks, there is a presidential debate and most likely the surveys will come out again next week, probably on a Friday or Thursday,” he said.
“They will time it when the debate is about to happen and we all know that one of the issues to be discussed is corruption. Perfect timing na naman ang gagawin nila dito,” Binay pointed out. Binay said he was not only questioning the timing but also the process by which such a report was concluded without having obtained their side of the issues raised.
“As far as I know, there are questions there like other officials have not been furnished yet with the COA report. How can they give their side if they haven’t read the COA report that was made the basis for the special audit. There is no due process,” he stressed.
Binay said he had no plans to leave the country as he would be campaigning for his father.
Binay and his sister Senator Nancy Binay joined the vice president in the motorcade in this province for the past two days. The senator joined the campaign sorties since Sunday in Pampanga.
“Again, it’s an issue against my family. Again, because the vice president is running for president and how they conduct it, itong mga investigation na ito, it’s highly questionable,” Binay said.
Asked to react to Duterte’s statement that once the vice president won the presidential race, corruption will worsen, Binay said, “Next question, please.”