MANILA, Philippines – There’s vindication for the family.

That’s how Senator Nancy Binay feels now that Senator Alan Peter Cayetano himself, who led the year-long probe against her family, is hitting the supposed political bias in the Senate inquiry into extrajudicial killings. 

“’Yung feeling na unang-una si Senator Cayateno, parang s’ya na ‘yung nagsasabi na ‘yung mga ginawa nila doon sa hearing na pinamunuan n’ya ay mali,” Binay told reporters on Tuesday, September 20.

(That feeling that, foremost, it is Senator Cayetano who is saying now that the things they did before in the hearings he steered were wrong.)

During the year-long hearing just befor the May 2016 elections – a length former Senator Joker Arroyo broke Senate records – Cayetano led 3 senators in presenting witnesses and evidence of alleged corruption against then Vice President Jejomar Binay.

The televised hearings were widely believed to have damaged Vice President Binay’s image, pulling him down in presidential surveys that he had initially topped.

De Lima probe ‘biased’?

Cayetano, in a privilege speech on Monday, September 19, accused Senator Leila de Lima of using the committee on justice and human rights to get back at President Rodrigo Duterte. (READ: Senate ousts De Lima as justice committee chairperson)

Cayetano also alleged that De Lima is being “biased” in the conduct of hearings for failing to vet the witness, Edgar Matobato, a self-confessed hitman of the alleged vigilante group Davao Death Squad.

“Kitang-kita ang bias ng ilang senador laban sa krusada ng Pangulo,” Cayetano said, referring to De Lima and her “allies.” (The bias of some senators are very evident against the President.)

Binay said these very things Cayetano is criticizing is the same act he committed during the series of Senate investigations into the alleged overpriced Makati buildings, which implicated the Binay family.

Cayetano’s statements now, Binay said, prove that the past hearings against the Binays were indeed used for political reasons.

“Those are the violations he is citing now in the hearing conducted by Senator Leila de Lima. So it seems we have a vindication that the hearing then was just used for political reasons and not really to search for the truth,” Binay said in Filipino

Inconsistent rules

Binay also lamented the “subjective” changing of Senate rules, saying those that were applied to their family are no longer applicable now.

But she’s leaving it up to karma, she said.

“I don’t know, I’m confused. The rules are subjective. Before it’s allowed, now it’s not. If you look at it, what happened before should not have been allowed, but now they harvest the wrong things they planted,” she said.

The senator, who was among those who voted to oust neophyte Senator De Lima as justice committee chair, said she did so because she does not want politics to overpower congressional hearings.

“Kaya rin ako bumoto in favor of that siguro it’s high time ‘wag na natin gamitin itong Senado for personal ambitions, personal issues,” the senator said.

(The reason I voted in favor of that is because, maybe it’s high time we no longer use the Senate for personal ambitions, personal issues.)

Binay said that if only they had the alliances that President Duterte enjoys now, their family would not have been politically persecuted in the Senate.

Binay also maintained she did not vote against De Lima based on the latter’s role in the filing of charges against her family, as she has already moved one from it. – Rappler.com