FORMER vice president Jejomar Binay dismissed hearings at the Senate that tagged President Rodrigo Duterte as the brains behind the Davao Death Squad, saying they were in aid of demolition, not legislation.
“What we saw Thursday at the Senate was a replay of the demolition telenovela against the former vice president,” Binay’s spokesman Joey Salgado said in a statement.
“Every rumor, half-truth, and hearsay broadcast or published; every accusation accepted and presented as truth–complete with dramatic pauses and gestures–by some senators,” he added. “©”Once again, a political personality–this time no less than the President himself–has been declared guilty even before the start of the hearing. Once again, senators are lawyering for a witness, and the public is treated to a barrage of shocking but unsubstantiated statements on live radio and television,” said Salgado.”©”©
Salgado said no family should go through the harrowing experience of the Binay family at the hands of Senate inquisitors.
“But no less than President Duterte and his family have been pilloried on live television by senators with patently political motives. And this looks like just the warm-up,” he said.
Salgado added that the Senate does not have the competence or the authority to determine criminal liability.
“Only the courts can determine guilt or innocence, not the Senate, and specially not senators with political motives.”
He also accused senators belonging to the Liberal Party of being behind the attacks.
“Thursday’s hearing is a page from the Liberal Party [LP] playbook, with a minor casting change: It’s now [Leila] De Lima and [Antonio] Trillanes as BFFs, with Senator [Alan Peter] Cayetano as the spurned ex-friend. Having said that, we cannot help but be amused by the antics of Senators Trillanes and Cayetano.”
“Cayetano’s conversion into a born-again advocate of due process and the rule of law is hilarious, considering that he lawyered for the accusers of VP Binay during the Blue Ribbon sub-committee hearings. At least, Trillanes was true to form as the Session Hall bully, this time intimidating his erstwhile BFF. These two deserve each other,” said Salgado. “©
At the hearing, the LP senators led by Trillanes and De Lima ganged up Cayetano after he questioned the credibility of the witness, Edgar Matobato who tagged President Duterte as the one who ordered the bombing of mosques and the killing of the suspects behind the Davao Cathedral bombing, during his term as Davao City mayor.
In 2014, Trillanes filed a resolution to investigate Binay, his son former Makati City mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. and other city government officials over the alleged overpriced city hall building.
The Binays maintained that the allegations hurled against them are baseless and politically motivated.