Aquino refutes Binay: He asked for help, I didn’t offer it

Natashya Gutierrez

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Aquino refutes Binay: He asked for help, I didn’t offer it
President Benigno Aquino III disputes claims of the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay regarding their October 14 meeting, and says they got it the other way around

MANILA, Philippines – It was Vice President Jejomar Binay who not only asked for a meeting with President Benigno Aquino III, but sought the Chief Executive’s “help” on the controversies hounding the Binay family.

This is what Aquino himself told reporters on Wednesday, October 22, at the Annual Presidential Forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP).

The President’s statements are contrary to what Binay’s camp has said about the October 14 meeting of the country’s highest officials.

Asked to comment on the claim of the Binay camp that Aquino had offered to help the Vice President on his current troubles, the President said: “The reverse is actually true: the Vice President was asking advice on what to do. I didn’t offer to help. He asked for advice on how to handle the situation, amongst other things.”

Aquino was referring to statements made by Binay’s spokesperson, Cavite Governor Juanito Victor Remulla, that it was the President who had brought up the subject of Binay’s family, and then asked how he could be of help to them.

He (Binay) stated the fact that Dra Binay was hurting from all of this. I didn’t ask about the family; he volunteered the information….[On who] did what, with all due respect to the spokesperson, he had it in reverse,” he said. 

Aquino also confirmed it was Binay himself who initiated the meeting, contradicting Remulla’s statement that it was initiated by both parties. He said Binay asked him, through a text message, if they could talk, and he agreed. He said they spoke from about 9 pm to midnight at Bahay Pangarap, his official residence, and not in Malacañang.

Responding to questions, the President also confirmed that Binay had asked him if it was possible to terminate the Senate probe on the Makati building, which had become a venue for allegations of corruption against the Vice President and his family. 

Aquino gave the context of the request, as apparently explained to him by Binay, that under normal procedure, the Ombudsman investigates allegations of corruption against public officials and if it finds supporting evidence, it would recommend the filing of charges before the anti-graft Sandiganbayan.

Binay currently faces a plunder case before the Ombudsman for an alleged overpriced Makati building that began construction during his time as the city’s mayor.

“He was saying, it is possible to terminate their inquiry in aid of legislation given the fact that the proper forum would be the Ombudsman’s office? And I said, we’ll inquire from the Senate President,” the President said.

Binay had earlier said he and the President only talked about “the good old times.” 

The meeting took place on the same evening that Binay, in a speech before state prosecutors, slammed Aquino’s allies and accused them of a demolition job against him, the Disbursement Acceleration Program, and the “unfair” treatment of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, detained for plunder raps, being a former president with a serious illness, and “a woman” at that.

A day earlier, Aquino also confirmed that he and Binay discussed the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s probe against the latter. Aquino told the Vice President that the Executive has no power to stop the investigation.

The President did, however, recall the long-standing loyalty of the Binays to his family especially, during coup attempts against his late mother, President Corazon Aquino.

He encapsulated his relationship with the Vice President, a family friend, through a quote Binay supposedly told him at the meeting: “Tanggap ko na magkaiba tayo sa pulitika pero magkaibigan tayo (I accept we differ in our political views, but we are friends).” Rappler.com

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Natashya Gutierrez

Natashya is President of Rappler. Among the pioneers of Rappler, she is an award-winning multimedia journalist and was also former editor-in-chief of Vice News Asia-Pacific. Gutierrez was named one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders for 2023.