Pictures

Figures are no match to pictures. That much is apparent once again in the case of Vice President Jejomar Binay and the allegations of unexplained wealth against him and his family.

Those allegations have been around for years, ever since the former human rights lawyer became mayor of the country’s most prosperous city and founded a political dynasty that would eventually see his wife and son succeed him at Makati City Hall, and two other children occupy seats in Congress. On the strength of his seemingly invulnerable grip on the city of Makati, Binay himself was able to pole-vault into the second highest office in the land.

But building that political bulwark, let alone accumulating and replenishing a war chest that would see each aspiring family member triumph in election after election, obviously required money. As Makati mayor, Binay’s salary was P32,000. And yet, as Newsbreak reported as early as 2001, in less than a decade he had acquired properties worth P80 million, including a farm in Batangas, condominium units in posh enclaves in Makati, a mansion in Tagaytay—but all of them undeclared in his or his wife’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

Despite those multimillion-peso price tags, the charges didn’t stick or gain traction. After 2001, Binay continued to be voted into office by Makati residents grateful for his social services programs that ensured free medicines, free movies and free birthday cakes. Those long years in power fortified his position even further, allowing him to post a spectacular come-from-behind victory over vice-presidential front-runner Mar Roxas in the 2010 elections.

But, as Binay moves toward what he believes is the next logical (his handlers would say ordained) step in his supposed presidential destiny, questions about the sources of his wherewithal have resurfaced, and this time they appear ready to stew longer in the public mind. He now has to contend with something completely unforeseen when he began plotting his ascendancy: social media and the viral phenomenon.

In 2001, in reply to Newsbreak’s allegations, Binay said, “These charges are a rehash of old election issues”—and that was that. Now, as technology has become cheaper to take photos, peer into previously closed-off properties, even hire a chopper to fly over an agricultural estate said to be six times bigger than Luneta Park, Binay is bedeviled by the reality that also led to the downfall of then President Joseph Estrada: Pictures of their alleged unexplained wealth are making an impact on the public much more than plain figures on paper can ever do.

The pictures that former Binay right-hand man Ernesto Mercado showed at the Senate of a 350-hectare property in Batangas (conservative estimate of worth: P1.2 billion) supposedly owned by the Binays have not only been published in this newspaper but have also exploded in social media, and is boggling the minds of ordinary citizens. For good reason: In the farm are, among others, an air-conditioned piggery, a flower farm of pricey orchids, a manmade lagoon, even a maze-like garden patterned after the Kew Gardens in London.

The Vice President has called Mercado’s charges a dud and a hallucination, saying that the estate is not his. But the property’s history and ownership indicate at the very least the possibility of a dummy arrangement. Residents of the surrounding area also attest to Binay himself frequenting the farm.

This story will not die simply with a curt dismissal from the VP and his spokespersons. Figures may fly over the heads of many people, but the pictures are making their mark.