THE camp of former Vice President Jejomar Binay is asking the Sandiganbayan to reconsider its decision denying the motion to raffle the criminal case filed against him in connection with the alleged overpriced parking building in Makati City.
In a 13-page resolution issued last Tuesday, the anti-graft court’s Third Division denied for lack of merit Binay’s motion to raffle off the cases filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in July 2016.
Binay was charged with four counts of graft, nine counts of falsification of public documents and one count of malversation over the alleged rigged bidding and overpriced construction of the Makati City Hall Building II when he was city mayor.
The Sandiganbayan en banc consolidated the cases against the former vice president and his son, former Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay.
But Binay’s legal counsel Daniel Subido clarified it was not the en banc that decided to consolidate the case of the former vice president with the case of his son without the required raffle.
He said the decision to consolidate was made by the Raffle Committee.”©”©
“We are merely asking that the same rules be applied to the Binays instead of being the exception. We will seek reconsideration of the order denying our motion to raffle,” Subido said.”©”©
Subido said instead of conducting a raffle, the committee directly consolidated the case against the former vice president with the case filed against his son now pending before the Third Division.
“Considering there was no raffle to begin with, our motion for reconsideration will still be filed with the Third Division,” he added.”©”©
The Third Division is the same division that refused to inhibit itself from another case filed against Binay’s wife and Elenita.”©”©
“As it is, practically all cases against the Binay family, even if the alleged bases of the complaints are different, are all pending in one division,” he said.”©”©
Elenita Binay had earlier reiterated her appeal for Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang to inhibit herself from hearing the case. “©”©”©
In a motion for reconsideration filed Jan. 24, Elenita, also a former Makati mayor, reiterated that she has lost confidence in Tang’s impartiality.
She maintained she would not get a fair trial from the court division chaired by Tang.”©
The lawyers maintained the allegations hurled against the Binays were baseless and politically motivated.
The Senate Blue Ribbon Subcommittee conducted a probe in 2015 on the case which stemmed from the complaints filed by Renato Bondal and Nicolas Enciso claiming that the construction of New Makati City parking building was overpriced by P1.3 billion.
Bondal, who ran but lost to Junjun Binay in the 2013 elections, claimed the building was “the most expensive parking building in the entire country.”