THE camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay on Tuesday mocked Liberal Party standard bearer Mar Roxas II for ignoring that Binay reduced the poverty rate in Makati when he was mayor of that city.
Roxas had claimed that the poverty rate in Makati increased sharply during Binay’s term.
“According to official government data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the number of poor residents dropped from 17,630 in 2000 to only 2,645 in 2012. That is a fact,” Binay’s spokesman Joey Salgado said.
He made his statement even as Binay on Tuesday said a vindictive government disrupts economic growth, citing Pampanga where the Aquino administration abandoned the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport project because it was named after the father of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Binay vowed that his administration would not be vindictive and would be a healing and unifying president.
“I want my administration to be a healing and unifying administration,” Binay said.
Salgado said the Department of Interior and Local Government under Roxas awarded Makati the Seal of Good Housekeeping for “performance, accountability, transparency and participation.”
“To win in the Silver Category, Makati met all the criteria set by the DILG,” Salgado said.
He said the public was now familiar with the Liberal Party’s lies.
“The LP has been very vocal in disavowing the use of mudslinging. They invoke how we campaign is how we govern so many times in the vain hope that the public will accept it as Gospel truth,” he said.
“It is a convenient way to evade talking about what matters most to the voters: their candidate’s track record of incompetence and ineptitude, the absence of a concrete plan to lift our people from poverty, and an unconquerable compassion deficit,” he said.
“The LP candidate [Roxas] also talked about Makati turning yellow. Now that is fiction.
“He may wax optimistic about a jaundiced future for Makati, but here’s a reality check: Roxas ally and attack dog Ernesto Mercado told media, just a few meters from where Roxas stood, that it would be difficult for Roxas to defeat VP Binay in Makati. For once, Mercado told the truth.”
