FORMER vice president Jejomar Binay will face the charges against him to prove his innocence and show that the case will be dismissed, his spokesman said Friday.
“The former vice president is eager to go to court to prove the grave abuses of the Ombudsman and have these frivolous cases dismissed,” Joey Salgado said in a statement.
The Ombudsman has indicted Binay for nine counts of falsification, four counts of graft and one count of misuse of public funds before the Sandiganbayan for the allegedly overpriced, P2.28-billion Makati City Hall Building II.
The Ombudsman similarly charged Binay’s son, ex-Makati Mayor Edwin Jejomar Binay, of graft and misuse of public funds.
But Salgado said the Ombudsman had clearly violated Binay’s constitutional rights.
“There is no specific act attributed against VP Binay that would constitute a crime in the information filed by the Ombudsman other than a tenuous conclusion of conspiracy,” Salgado said.
Even the prosecutors of the Ombudsman sought clarification from the latter regarding the previous cases filed against the Makati officials, Salgado said.
He said that showed the sloppiness of the work done by the Ombudsman in her attempt to indict the Binays by way of trial by publicity.
“It must also be emphasized that the Commission on Audit has not issued up to this date any audit observation memo or disallowances on the payments made over the subject project,” Salgado said.