Malacañang yesterday rebuked Vice President Jejomar Binay for hitting the administration that he was part of for the last five years just because of his political plans. “The Vice President, in opening the next chapter of his political life, has chosen a path that will define him not only as an official but as a person. For our part, we note his past service to the Aquino Cabinet. We note furthermore that in the five years of service to President Aquino, he has never spoken ill of the governance policies of the President,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.
“Still, he has made the unfortunate choice to commence his presidential run with statements that he could have otherwise discussed with the President as a Cabinet member but chose not to,” he added.
Without entertaining questions and leaving the allegations of corruption against him unanswered, Binay described the Aquino administration as “numb and a failure” in addressing the needs of the people.
Binay declared he would now lead the opposition, saying he was seeing the hand of the administration in the moves to hit and harass him and his family when reforms under Aquino’s daang matuwid (straight path) policy could not be felt, especially by the poor.
The Vice President also said the administration was practicing “selective justice” as those involved in anomalies were being spared, noting the Disbursement Acceleration Program and the Priority Development Assistance Fund, the Metro Rail Transit 3 extortion case, the Mamasapano incident, among others that he pointed out have not been adequately addressed. He said Aquino’s straight path was a sham and that if the intention was to make him withdraw from the presidential derby, his political foes would not succeed.
Former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada expressed confidence that Binay will overcome the attacks against him. Estrada also remained confident that Binay is still the top presidential candidate in 2016.
“He will overcome it. He still has high trust rating,” he said.(A. Calica, J. R. Clapano PS)
