By Fernan Marasigan
Manila Times
The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) took potshots at two pro-administration senators for allowing their resource person to peddle lies in the senate to demolish Vice President Jejomar Binay.
Lawyer JV Bautista, UNA interim secretary general, said senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes allowed former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado to “tweak the truth.”
Bautista cited Cayetano’s admission that he chartered the helicopter that took aerial photos of a vast estate in Rosario, Batangas, that is allegedly owned by Binay.
“Sen. Cayetano knew Mercado was lying when he claimed he paid for and was on board the helicopter. But Cayetano just let Mercado lie. That is the senator who says the truth will set us free. The truth shall set us free, Sen. Cayetano,” Bautista said in a statement.
“The fish is caught by the mouth. And Cayetano so admitted , after he was found to be hiding something, because all those aboard the helicopter were his people, ” he added.
The lawyer said the senator’s reluctant admission again showed the senate inquiry into the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building 2 is a scripted zarzuela (farce) “where the senators are not only actors but also the directors and writers with (Department of Interior and Local Government) Secretary (Manuel) “Mar” Roxas as the producer.”
Bautista scored the senators for allowing Mercado to talk endlessly on malicious and baseless charges against the vice president, but, he said, they ridiculed and constantly interrupted Chinese-Filipino businessman Antonio Tiu when it was Tiu’s turn to talk.
“The way Tiu was abused and threatened especially by Sen. Trillanes only confirms the wisdom of the (vice president’s) decision to stay away from this farcical witchhunt,” the UNA official said.
Meanwhile, he noted that Belle Corp has issued an official statement denying that Binay owns a log cabin in Tagaytay Highlands as also claimed by Mercado.
“It is not only Mercado who has been playing loose with the truth. It is the senators themselves. Without offering a shred of evidence, (Trillanes) alleges bribery. We would like the senator to shed off his parliamentary immunity and be accountable for defamation like any ordinary citizen. (I challenge him to be man enough and not hide behind parliamentary immunity. Lying is not included in a senator’s privileges),” he added.
Bautista said the senators “are so blinded by hate that they do not even, or (that) maybe (they do), pretend not to understand that a property sale can be consummated by a Transfer Certificate Title (TCT) annotation only after the seller has completed his documentation and the buyer his payments.”
“Now that this has been cleared up, we wonder where else this witchhunt will go to next,” the UNA official added.
