Manila Times/Manila

Vice President Jejomar Binay yesterday said the senators who are investigating him want to destroy his chances of winning in the presidential elections in 2016 because they fear that they will be prosecuted for their “misdeeds” if he becomes president.
“Those investigating me are simply there because as they admitted, they do not want me to even launch a presidential campaign, obviously fearing that should the people support me they would be made accountable for their misdeeds and abuse of power,” Binay said.
He said the main players in the Senate probe see him as a threat to their ambition and that explains why they are doing everything to undermine his integrity and reputation. “The legislative character of the investigation is brazenly replaced by a route of inquiry that is judicial in nature but masquerading as ‘in aid of legislation’,” Binay added.
“If there are serious accusations being peddled by my enemies, the truth could be proven in a way that civilised societies do, with hard, unassailable evidence,” he said.The vice president noted that the obvious abuse by some politicians of their political powers could trample the civil rights of every Filipino.
This he said is evidenced by recent developments in the ongoing inquiry by a sub-committee of the Senate blue ribbon panel into allegations that Binay benefited from construction of the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building 2 when he was mayor of Makati City.
Binay said some politicians are willing to sacrifice civil rights in the name of politics.
“The so-called investigation at the Senate sends a dire warning to everyone: That for the sake of politics, civil rights are the first casualty,” the vice president added.
“I pity the ordinary government employees and citizens who are being hammered, the effect on their daily affairs, the scorn and ridicule they are being subjected to that no private individual should suffer in a democratic society. I ask our people to examine closely the direction the so-called investigation is taking. So far, they have resorted to humiliating me and my family with such viciousness I have not seen employed by the Senate before,” he said.
“First, the so-called legislative agenda of that investigation has been unmasked as simply an inquisition designed to bring disrepute to my person by the abuse of parliamentary rules,”
Binay added.






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