MAKATI Mayor Junjun Binay said Tuesday he was confident the Land Bank of the Philippines would continue to recognize him as the signatory to all the city government’s transactions amid reports that the salaries of Makati employees will be affected by the leadership dispute between him and Vice Mayor Romulo Peña Jr.
Binay, who received an order from the Court of Appeals stopping the Ombudsman from enforcing its six-month suspension against him, disputed the claim of Peña’s camp that Land Bank had recognized the vice mayor as the signatory taking his place.
The Ombudsman had suspended Binay for the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building II.
“We are confident that the bank’s officials will continue to recognize the status quo,” Binay said.
“Otherwise it would be another questionable action. Let us wait for the ruling of the Court of Appeals on the petition for contempt we filed against these people who until now persist in def ying the court order.”
Binay on Monday signed an agreement with Trade Department officials who, he said, still recognized him as the mayor of Makati.
“We stand firm in the validity of the Temporary Restraining Order issued by the Court of Appeals. There should be no doubt that I am the mayor of Makati, which includes the Central Business District,” he said.
About 8,000 city hall employees earlier expressed fears that their salaries would be delayed because of the continuing standoff between Binay and Peña, saying most of them were ordinary employees who depended on their pay for their family’s daily sustenance. Most of the city’s workforce are also Makati residents.
Peña said the payroll slips of city hall employees were on standstill with the absence of the city treasurer, who was also the subject of a suspension order from the Ombudsman.
“They already got the first half-month of their salaries but we will be having a problem at the end of the month,” he said in an interview with ANC Headstart.
Peña, who took his oath as acting mayor after the Interior Department served the suspension order against Binay, said he had already asked the Department of Finance to help them solve the issue.
“They will be the one who will designate a city treasurer and definitely I am assuring everyone that the city treasurer will be under me,” Peña said.
Peña, who is also hoping that Land Bank will honor the Interior Department’s advisory to honor his signature, said he would soon appoint his own department heads.
But Binay said Peña could go ahead and do it at his own peril.
“I have the full support of the City Council and all the department heads recognize me as the Mayor of Makati,” Binay said.
“If he appoints his own department heads, it will be another overt act of defying the court’s order that can make him liable for contempt.”
Binay also slammed the Interior Department for asking the Department of Finance to appoint a new city treasurer.
“It should be the Ombudsman’s role to follow up the DoF on this matter, not the DILG. Clearly, we could see that Secretary Roxas is hell-bent on suspending Makati officials,” he said.