Former Makati City mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. on Tuesday filed his certificate of candidacy to face his elder sister, incumbent Mayor Mar-Len Abigail Binay, in the 2019 midterm polls.
Junjun and his running mate, incumbent Makati City 1st District Rep. Monsour del Rosario, were accompanied by his eldest sister, Senator Nancy Binay, when they, together with other candidates running for councilors, filed their CoCs at the Comelec Makati Office.
Citing her own fight, reelectionist Senator Nancy Binay on Tuesday said she will not meddle in the infighting between her two siblings who are both running for mayor or campaign for them.
She said it would be very difficult on her part to take sides.
“At this point I also have a fight, so I first need to focus on this [reelection],” said Nancy, the eldest among the children of former Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is also seeking a congressional seat, and former Makati City Mayor Elena Binay.
Junjun and the actor turned politician are running under the ticket of Una ang Makati, a newly formed local political party in the city, while his sister Abby is seeking a second term under the United Nationalist Alliance, the political party formed by their father when he ran for president in the May 2016 presidential elections.
But Abby Binay, who is set to file her CoC today, Wednesday, is contesting the eligibility of her brother as a candidate due to his pending case. She said Junjun must first settle his case before thinking of a comeback in politics.
Junjun’s legal counsel and former Commission on Elections chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr., who also accompanied him in filing his certificate at the local Comelec office, said the case was not a hindrance to his client’s candidacy, adding that it was not final and executory.
“Nothing is final. No ground for any disqualification against Junjun,” Brillantes said.
Junjun thanked his father for not taking sides between him and Abby.
Five months ago, the Court of Appeals signed a resolution reversing the 2015 decision dismissing Junjun and several other city officials and barred them from holding public office in connection with the alleged overpriced construction of Makati City Hall Building II.
In a 159-page decision written by Associate Justice Edwin Sorongon, the CA reversed the 2015 ruling of the Office of the Ombudsman, saying Jejomar Erwin Binay was still covered by the 2010 Supreme Court decision that reiterated its 1959 condonation doctrine that extinguishes the administrative liability of an elective public official once reelected to the same post.
The CA cited the high court’s ruling that says “this Court’s (SC) abandonment of the condonation doctrine should be prospective in application for the reason that judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution, until reversed, shall form part of the legal system of the Philippines.”
Junjun had invoked the condonation doctrine when he challenged before the CA the ruling of the Office of the Ombudsman.
Agreeing with the former mayor, the CA said the administrative complaint against him “pertained to acts which transpired before he was subsequently elected and continued in public office on May 14, 2013.
“It is uncontroverted that Binay Jr. served as the city mayor of Makati from June 28, 2010, and was reelected into the same office on May 14, 2013.”
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