Birthday boy Binay: No ‘crisis,’ just ‘opportunities’

Bea Cupin

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Birthday boy Binay: No ‘crisis,’ just ‘opportunities’
A priest prays for the Vice President, who turns 72 amid the biggest corruption scandal in his 30-plus years in politics: 'We pray that his love for God be so intense that it spills over to love of the country'
 

MANILA, Philippines –  A black SUV with the plate number “2” arrived a little past 8 am Monday at the Makati city hall parking lot. On cue, the Makati City Drum and Lyre Corps sprung into action. 

The “Happy Birthday” song enveloped the open area as Vice President Jejomar Binay made his way to the first row of mono bloc chairs. His children – incumbent Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr and Senator Nancy Binay – were already there. 

A thanksgiving mass for the Binay patriarch and matriarch began.

On Tuesday, November 11, the Vice President turns 72. Elenita turned 70 on November 9. 

With a scene like this, it was easy to forget that the Binay family was in the middle of the biggest corruption scandal to hit them. 

Back in Makati, the problems disappeared – at least, for an hour or so.

“The origins of the word ‘crisis’ is beautiful. It doesn’t mean ‘problem’ but ‘opportunity,’” one of the 9 priests hearing the Monday morning mass said during the homily. 

Looking straight at the 4 Binays, the priest added: “See this as an opportunity to lift off.” 

The backdrop of the entire activity, ironically, was the Makati City Hall Building 2, the alleged overpricing of which has led to a string of other very much publicized corruption allegations by his political enemies.

All in the family

The Vice President and his family are accused of amassing ill-gotten wealth during their patriarch’s nearly two-decade rule in the country’s business capital.

Whistle-blowers in a Senate blue ribbon subcommittee probe say Binay rigged bids and accepted kickbacks, and hid all his wealth through dummies and foreign accounts  

Binay and his son face plunder charges for the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building 2. 

Three of the 4 Binays holding elected positions: Vice President Jejomar Binay, son Makati Mayor Junjun Binay and daughter Senator Nancy Binay

Nancy is accused of profiting from the cakes the city gives to its senior citizens. Elenita is said to have merely continued her husband’s supposedly corrupt ways and, to this day, faces 7 corruption cases before the Ombudsman. 

The rest of the Binay brood have not been spared – Representative Abigail Binay, who skipped the mass, is accused of using kickbacks from projects to fund her re-election bid

Thanks to Instagram posts by the youngest Binay, Joanna Marie, senators leading the probe against Binay had something to present to the public as “proof” of the Vice President’s ownership of “Hacienda Binay” – photos geo-tagged to be in Rosario, Batangas. 

The Binays and their allies have dismissed the accusations against the family.

The plunder complaints, the Senate probe, and the exposés, the Binay camp says, are all just part of a plot to ruin the Vice President’s chances at becoming president in the 2016 elections. 

Same thing, different year 

Binay’s 71st birthday celebration last year was decidedly less sober. Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) had ravaged through central Philippines just a few days before. 

Instead of pomp and pageantry, Binay was in Oriental Mindoro, one of the many provinces affected by the super typhoon but was less in the news. The days that followed would see Binay travelling to other areas devastated Yolanda. 

 
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This year, the Vice President will be joining members of the Philippine Navy, as well as their children. Binay is a reserve Marine colonel.

Birthday wishes for the Vice President are mostly linked to the current controversy he finds himself in. “’Pagpatuloy niya ’yung laban niya, lalo na ’yung laban niya para sa ating mga kababayan,” was Nancy’s wish for her father. (My wish is for him to continue his fight, especially his fight for our countrymen.)

The Palace wished him “longer life and good health,” through deputy spokesman Undersecretary Abigail Valte. 

The same priest who said the allegations against the Binays were not problems but “opportunities” wished the same on the Vice President and his wife, adding that the “country needs [Binay].” 

“We pray that his love for God be so intense that it spills over to love of the country,” the priest concluded.

Binay’s closeness to the Church is part of his sly political maneuverings, said former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, one of the whistle-blowers in the probe. 

“Every Sunday, he would hear Mass in different parishes. He would arrive 15 minutes before the start of Mass and in full view of everyone, would talk to the parish priest. He would scan the church and notice things that needed fixing. He would tell the parish priest, within hearing distance of everyone, he would finance the improvements,” Mercado told Rappler in a previous interview. 

Controversy is nothing new to Binay. 

Even during his first few years as mayor, Binay faced allegations of bid rigging and fund misuse. And like many years ago, it was a spurned trusted aide who blew the whistle on him.

The Vice President has proven victorious in the past. As of 2014, he has no pending cases before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan. (READ: Payoffs, weak prosecution got Binay off the hook)

But on Sunday, Binay told reporters his birthday wish was for the “political persecution” against his family to stop. – Rappler.com 

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Bea Cupin

Bea is a senior multimedia reporter who covers national politics. She's been a journalist since 2011 and has written about Congress, the national police, and the Liberal Party for Rappler.