Corruption would be biggest issue in 2016 polls

If Vice President Jejomar Binay is telling the truth when he told the Inquirer that he had been considering businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan as his running mate since last year, then he must have been lying to the man who helped him become vice president, Erap. Binay had assured Mayor Joseph Estrada that the latter’s son Jinggoy would be his vice-presidential running mate in 2016. He says now that he had been eyeing MVP as his running mate since last year. Which is which? Is it Jinggoy or MVP? Either way, Binay was lying to, of all people, the man who got him elected as vice president and to a businessman who has the billions of pesos to fund his election campaign.

Is that the man who wants to become president of the Philippines? Unlike US President George Washington who could not tell a lie, presidential wannabe Binay cannot tell the truth.

Binay could not have won without the masa votes of his presidential running mate, Erap. Now he is going to repay Erap with a traitorous act. He is dropping Jinggoy and wooing MVP because he needs the latter’s money for the campaign. Such gratitude! Why, what happened to the alleged kickbacks not only from the “world-class” Makati parking building but also from the other buildings in Makati? The Binays also call the parking building “green.” The senators and experts who went to Makati to look at the building said that what is world-class is the amount of overprice for it and that it is not green at all. But maybe the Binays were referring to the green color of the dollar.

Erap had said before that he himself may run against Binay if he does not pick Jinggoy as his running mate and if he, Binay, is endorsed for president by President Aquino, which is Binay’s fondest wish. Is that the reason Binay is forming his own political party and getting out of the UNA (United Nationalist Alliance) coalition? UNA was formed by Erap’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile—now detained and being tried for plunder—and Binay. Now that JPE and Jinggoy are in trouble, he is going to abandon them. That’s desertion. Is the man who wants to become the next president a deserter?

MVP’s decision to turn down Binay’s offer is correct. Like a gigolo, Binay is only after MVP’s money. And if MVP becomes a public official, he has to leave his many profitable business corporations, otherwise he would be accused of conflict of interest.

If the talk in the business community is true—that it was MVP himself who offered to finance Binay’s presidential campaign provided he chose him, MVP, as his vice-presidential candidate—then the latter must have wisely changed his mind. Perhaps MVP has had his own survey on the popularity of Binay as presidential candidate and found out that it has dropped dramatically because of the corruption charges.

What happened to presidential candidate Manny Villar is still fresh in the minds of the people. Villar was leading in the surveys and they thought he was a sure winner until the scandal in Las Piñas broke. Villar finished a poor third in the election.

Political analysts think that is what is going to happen to Binay. Corruption, after all, would be the biggest issue in 2016 because of all the thievery that was discovered going on in the government. People will choose somebody who is not tainted with corruption as their next president. And Binay is not only tainted but seems to be up to his neck in it. Not only him but his whole family. Do we want a family like that to be the next occupants of Malacañang? Never again!

Binay may be leading in the surveys but wait until the corruption charges sink in. People will drop him like a hot potato.

Besides, the people surveyed in the past did not really have any choice. Binay  is the only declared candidate so far. So who will the people surveyed choose when asked their choice for president? Wait until there are other declared candidates.

Binay has been campaigning for the presidency as soon as he became vice president. P-Noy appointed him the housing czar to solve the squatting problem, our biggest problem now. But what has he done until now? Has the number of squatters diminished? No. Have the homeless been provided with homes? No. Have squatted-upon lands been returned to their owners? Still no. So what has Binay done in the five years that he has been the housing czar? Nothing. Instead of doing his job, he has been going around the country and even abroad to court votes. And that’s the man who wants to be president?

Binay declared that if he became (God forbid) president, he would run the national government “the same way he ran the (Makati) City Hall.” Oh no, please don’t. If that happens, then the Philippines will land in the Guinness Book of World Records as “the most corrupt in the world.”