The President voices his concern
AFTER 11 hearings on the alleged overpricing of a Makati city building when Vice President Jejomar Binay was mayor 20 years ago, President Aquino suggested the other day that the Senate consider that its inquiry “has matured to go into the more formal process.” The President was suggesting, in other words, that the appropriate mechanisms for exacting accountability – the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice – now take over.
The reaction of Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee conducting the investigation, was rather unexpected. He said President Aquino should keep his hands off the Senate investigation. It would be a “bad precedent,” he said, if the Senate gave in to the President’s suggestion.
The senator should understand that after so many hearings that expanded from the Makati building to birthday cakes, to a hacienda in Batangas, the senators have already accomplished their purpose. Any further prolongation of the investigation, in the view of many, would be “politically motivated.”
Secretary Heminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Office said President Aquino was merely expressing his view on the need for the appropriate government agencies to take over. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda added it was not unusual for the President to urge Senate President Franklin Drilon to speed up and complete its Binay probe so it could attend to other very pressing concerns like the 2015 national budget and the Bangsamoro law.
It might be noted that even the leaders of the House of Representatives led by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. felt that the Senate probe had turned “destructive.” One congressman said it had become a “fishing expedition.” In the Senate itself, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago has recommended that all the cases against Vice President Binay be turned over to the Ombudsman. Acting Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III said he could not blame those pushing for abolition of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee for its failure to come up with even a single committee report on its investigations.
Backing Senator Pimentel in seeking to continue the Binay investigation are Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV. They want the hearings to continue for several more weeks – up to April next year. It would be significant to have the other members of the Senate express their views on this matter.
In any case, the President Aquino has expressed concern which his allies in Congress would ordinarily consider with utmost consideration. “I’d like to think that we have responsible members in the Senate who are attending to their other functions beside this,” the President said.