‘Parking Gate’ and the Binay dynasty

The road to the presidency went south for Binay.  Surveys are falling and people are bailing out.  It’s always the problem of a sinking ship; hard to keep the rats aboard. 

With the parade of witnesses against the VP, his goose is getting cooked. (READ: The Lord of Makati)

Binay should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.  What got my goat was his boast to demolish all accusations against him, but there was no bang. 

Sidestepping the Senate makes sense to me for he knows he will fall on his sword.  No amount of convincing can prod the VP to appear, not even the assurance of respect and courtesy befitting his stature.  

The bottom line, the committee is even saying “you can always walk out anytime you want or whenever the going gets tough, without the pain of contempt.”  No, he wasn’t prejudged as he claimed; it’s just that he developed cold feet.  

Litmus test  

The ongoing investigation is the litmus test for the ability of the residents of Makati to rise above partisan politics.   

The result will have a far reaching effect but will take time, owing to the slow wheels of justice.  Delays in the courts of law moved 80% of the people to support the Senate investigation; they wanted to know the real score quickly and without interference.  Nonetheless, the unfolding events will be a good barometer of things to come, for or against Binay.  

The question remains:  Would the people of Makati be willing to trade their free cakes and movies in exchange for good government if indeed there was corruption? The answer belongs to those willing to shed their blinkers and the gullible willing to discern.  

Since the VP is open to a lifestyle check, it should be pursued with much gusto.  No doubt we have a lot of upright auditors that will be up to the challenge.  An audit program designed to uncover fraud and an application of forensic accounting will enable them to pierce the web of ghost ownership, dummies and shells.  

Take the case of his 2010 SALN:

The P13.3-million increase in net worth for 2010 is the direct result of an incorrect recording of excess campaign contributions. The GAAP requires, under the principle of conservatism, that the contributions be recorded as a “contingent liability.” 

In foreign jurisdictions, a business is required to deliver to the government “unclaimed properties” which have had no activity for 3 consecutive years.  Under what authority then, legally and morally, would a candidate get to keep excess contributions in his campaign kitty?  Donating the money to charity but without claiming tax deductions would have been more appropriate since the money is not his in the first place.

Carrying cost for the farm and stocks totaled 12,756,561.  Increase in cash from the sale of both was a mere P2,756,561, accepting a receivable of P10 million for the balance. 

According to Binay’s lawyer, the stocks and the farm were sold for profit.  If so, why is there no significant increase in cash or in any other asset or a decrease in liability?  Incidentally, one of the VP’s spokesmen said,  “Allegations are easy to concoct but numbers are hard to refute.” I say, “Not when it’s inaccurate!”

A residential lot in Nasugbu was purchased in 1996 for P378,000 and another in Olo-Olo, Ilocos Sur, in 2006 for P15,183.  These purchases were only reported in the 2007 and 2009 SALNS, respectively, thereby causing the SALNs from 1996 to 2009 to be incorrect.

The Binay family has continuously governed for 26 years. Rotation as an internal control was rendered inutile by the credulous who sacrificed public accountability in favor of a political dynasty.  

Key personnel in offices requiring trust were allowed to perpetuate, thus bonding themselves to the structure and the system itself.  The lack of rotation became a source of power so intoxicating that greed began to lurk not only in acts of corruption but in coveting elective office as well!

In the final analysis, people deserve the kind of government by the politicians they elect.  Informed voters owe it upon themselves to educate the underprivileged for they are the albatross towards a clean government.  And it’s not because people are adamant to a change; it’s because we have to do something to wipe out the dirt on the face of get-rich politics.  

While the irony is that people catch crocodiles but vote for them in office, things will change for the better.  As Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” — Rappler.com           

Cesar F. Crisostomo retired from work last year after 35 years. His first job was as an accounts receivable clerk and was a corporate comptroller. He was also a trial lawyer for two years in the Philippines until he moved to Carson, California.  He occasionally gives legal advice to his kababayans, although accounting is the meat of his practice.