VP Binay muffing his chance to appear presidential

Today is the last day to serve the Ombudsman’s order suspending Makati Mayor Junjun Binay on corruption charges.

Binay has holed up in his office on the 21st floor of the City Hall building and supporters have blocked all entrances to City Hall to prevent the suspension order from being served on the mayor. But the Binay camp has taunted Interior Secretary Mar Roxas—perceived to be a rival of the older Binay for the presidency—to serve the suspension order himself. Vice President Jojo Binay even warned of a “misencounter,” a term used by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to describe the Mamasapano gunfight that killed 44 commandos of the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force.

Is it a threat that the Binay camp would start shooting if the Department of Interior and Local Government tries to serve the suspension order?

Roxas should not fall for the trap. Why should he debase himself and stoop to their level when he has the whole PNP to do it for him? Roxas described the taunt as “high school mentality.”

Besides, a piece of paper need not be served on Binay personally. That’s a mere formality.

Binay already knows that he has been suspended by the Ombudsman for six months to prevent the possible tampering of evidence at City Hall. In fact, he has already questioned it in a petition for certiorari and for the issuance of a temporary restraining order by the Court of Appeals.

If by today, the appellate court does not issue a TRO, the suspension order of the Ombudsman takes effect and Binay loses all authority to run the Makati City government. He cannot sign documents and he cannot withdraw funds from the banks to pay the salaries of City Hall employees. The banks would have been already told not to honor his signatures. Binay would be occupying City Hall, but he would be doing it as a squatter. The acting mayor can transact business elsewhere.

Without a TRO, Binay would be in a no-win situation. Other officials had tried the same tactic before but they were nevertheless ousted in the end.

And what is Binay afraid of if he is innocent of the charges? He would be acquitted in the end. And the sooner he submits to a trial, the sooner he would be acquitted and restored to the mayorship—that is, if he is innocent.

But if he is guilty, he would try everything to stop or delay the trial. Which means, his guilt or innocence can already be suggested by

his actions.

When the Senate subcommittee was investigating charges of overpricing in the construction of the City Hall parking building, which was started during the term of Binay the father as mayor, the two Binays, father and son, refused to accept invitations for them to testify and defend themselves. Junjun testified once, but he refused to show up again.

They said they would present their side “at the proper forum and the right time.”

Now is the right time and the proper forum. It is the Ombudsman that will hear their defense, not the Senate.

During the Senate hearings, the Binay camp repeatedly demanded a halt to the Senate investigation. Let the Ombudsman do it, they said. (The graft case against the Binay wife and mother Elenita, who is a physician by profession, for overpricing of hospital equipment when she was mayor, has been frozen in the Ombudsman and now the Sandiganbayan.)

But now that the Ombudsman is doing it, Junjun refuses to obey its suspension order. It seems that they trust an order only if it is favorable to them.

What’s so scary about being suspended anyway? It is only temporary. He would be back as mayor when it expires. And during the time that he is suspended, he can concentrate his time and efforts in defending himself. Doesn’t he appreciate that? If he has no intention of tampering evidence, what’s so scary about being away from City Hall temporarily?

Junjun’s lawyer told a press forum that they are afraid that he would no longer be allowed to reassume his position as mayor.

How can they do that if he is not guilty?

The courts will surely order his return to the mayorship.

But if you know you are guilty, you would be afraid of a trial. That’s common sense.

Junjun’s lawyer said that the administration is “persecuting” the Binay family because it wants a Liberal Party member, the vice mayor, to be the acting mayor. So why doesn’t the Binay family join the LP in the hope that Binay the elder would be anointed as its presidential candidate? Anyway, the Binay patriarch, Vice President Jojo Binay, pretends to be a friend and supporter of the administration party.

But with all the graft cases against the Binays, how can the LP, whose program of government is to battle corruption, have a candidate who is himself accused of corruption? And not just one case of corruption but several.

VP Binay missed a chance to appear presidential and thus boost his chances of being elected president. He could have told his son to obey a legal order like a good law-abiding citizen. Now, that would have been true statesmanship. But the VP missed the chance of being viewed as a true statesman by making the “misencounter” threat and even by sleeping at City Hall with his son in a show of support for disobedience to a lawful order.

That’s the man who wants to be president?