No champion of the poor

“Pinalamon ko po sa kamay ko yan!” was Vice President Jejomar Binay’s dehumanizing description of his “sworn brother” and former vice mayor Ernesto Mercado. “Lamon” means pig-out. “I pig-fed him from my hand” is an ululation of a very rich powerful man, not a champion of the poor.

I supported “Noy-Bi” in the 2010 elections. That early I believed Binay would go for the presidency in 2016. In 2009 Binay e-mailed me a personally signed letter supportive of my letter to the editor decrying the Arroyo regime’s corruption. Being a lowly driver I thought it nice to frame a letter from a would-be president. I also believed Binay was tolerably corrupt and excused him with the rationale that he needed to beef up his political war chest to take on and serve justice to other more corrupt figures. Reassuringly, Binay stressed in that letter that “the fake president (Gloria Arroyo) and her husband” who brought stigma to our country must pay. And “justice will come to those who have wronged us.” Now Binay is theatrically decrying the justice being served upon Arroyo as he asserted that “[o]n the evidence presented there really is no case… she’s a lady, a president who again became president, moreover she is sick. Is this right? Ah…this should not be.”

So Mr. Vice President, how did your fake president suddenly become guiltless and genuine two times over? Clearly now Binay wants Arroyo’s resources and supporters. So obviously under Binay’s rule, no justice will come to those who have wronged us. Loose, shifting principles and loyalty make a perennial betrayer. If Binay readily betrayed his sworn brothers, he can more readily betray the masses of nobodies like us.

All inquiring and investigative government agencies, media outfits, hecklers and mass “uziseros” all over the country should investigate the Binays. I’m not well-versed with the letter of our laws but I have a good grasp of its spirit. Should Binay be overwhelmingly found to have committed the crime of plunder when he was mayor, then he was already a closet criminal plunderer at large when he ran for vice president. Being such a criminal is a searing betrayal of public trust (if you want to impeach).

Binay still portrays himself as belonging to the poor and fighting against “mestizos” and “mga anak-mayaman.” But the Binay children are “mga anak-mas-mayaman,” reportedly with home elevator, chandeliered toilet, infinity pool, bank vaults and what the heck else. Binay says it’s a political war between the rich and the poor, and the rich are out to get him. But what we see is Hacienda Binay’s opulent design, from where we can smell the stink of extravagance possibly borne out of ill-gotten wealth, and which tells us that its owners are no champions of the poor.

Yes, the war I find myself in is between the watchful thinking masses I belong to and the filthy rich political goliaths like the Binays.

—ERNIE LAPUZ,

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