“Nakakaloka [It’s maddening],” Senator Nancy Binay said on the first working day in the Senate after she discovered she will be sitting beside two other senators who had been hounding her father, former Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, after he declared his presidential bid last year.
“Ibang level ng powers ito [This needs a different level of powers],” she said when she saw in the Senate seat plan that she will be sitting beside Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who will also be beside Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
Cayetano and Trillanes were members of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee who actively investigated the former Vice President over the overpricing of the Makati Park Building 2 and other alleged irregularities during his incumbency as Makati mayor.
The Ombudsman filed graft charges against the former vice president and his son, former Makati mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay, in connection with the building but had already posted bail after the Sandiganbayan issued warrants of arrest against them.
And as if to further raise Senator Binay’s hackles, Cayetano joked about the situation while the dismayed Binay complained to a Senate official about the seating arrangement.
Cayetano who appeared in the Senate for the first time as he was absent on Monday said he did not know if he was being punished today or it’s his two seatmates who were being punished as he will be sitting between them.
“Are you punishing me or are you punishing my two seatmates,” Cayetano said. “But I was told it was just temporary so Senator Binay and I both laughed.”
“I might transfer to the minority,” Binay shot back, needling Cayetano about his supposed independent stance in the Senate even after unsuccessfully running for vice president with President Rodrigo Duterte in the last election.
When questioned if he would complain about the seating arrangement, Cayetano said: “They already complained ahead of me.”
But Trillanes was in no joking mood when he was informed of the seating arrangement after his arrival, the senator. “Upuan lang iyon [That’s only a seat],” he said of the prospect of sitting near Binay and right beside his rival in the last elections.