IMMEDIATELY after P-Noy’s Sona delivery last July, television news anchor Pia
Hontiveros interviewed Vice President Jejomar Binay.
So what did he think about P-Noy’s Sona? she asked. His uneventful answer: “It was okay; he gave the state of the nation.”
Visible to the TV audience was daughter-senator Nancy. Hontiveros asked what she thought when, upon recalling the legacy of his parents, P-Noy briefly became emotional.
And Nancy said, “Syempre mahirap kasi mabigat ang legacy, katulad sa amin, di ba?” The usually outspoken and transparent Hontiveros outdid herself; she merely looked at the senator.
But she must have thought what I could not hold back in the privacy of my room, “What, my dear, are you talking about? What legacy?”
Of course, two months today, her answer bears repeating–“Mabigat ang legacy.”
And we mean the legacy, if the Senate’s hearings nail the truth, of corruption, kickbacks, unexplained wealth, etcetera, leveled against the Binay father and son.
That the charges of corruption have surfaced are not surprising. Even when the VP was still Makati mayor and despite the benefits he generously extended to its citizens, including the PWDs, people were already whispering about corruption in Makati.
In fact, the common comment was that Binay was just lucky he was mayor of the country’s richest city. A city where the rich don’t mind shelling out much, because anyway there’s more where it comes from. And a city where the richest of the rich want to keep a low profile and to whom any contribution is peanuts just to keep their peace and quiet in their precious enclaves.
So, if corruption involved some deals and transactions, no legal battles, please, just amicable settlements.
Neither is it surprising that a government building is overpriced. The amount of overprice, reportedly P2.4 billion, is no hair-raiser. You don’t expect people in high places to risk being caught for just millions, do you?
Still, corruption by and of the high and mighty is a storyline as old as, or even older than, the Elpidio Quirino presidency. Only that in Quirino’s case, it was just a chamber pot, not a building.
It shouldn’t be surprising that the Senate is conducting hearings about fellow legislators. They brought a Supreme Court chief justice to his knees, eventually causing him to resign.
They conducted hearings on three senators who are now in jail, and two past presidents of the land, one convicted of plunder but alas forgiven, and another still awaiting conclusion of her trial though partly atoning through health challenges.
So, what right does a VP have to claim “no touch”?
Amid moves to strengthen support for the anti-dynasty bill, and despite the incumbent President’s leanings to set this in motion, the VP throws caution--and delicadeza-- to the wind and has caused the election of a son to Makati mayorship, a daughter to Congress and another daughter to the Senate.
Amid P-Noy’s campaign against graft and corruption, his VP faces charges of ill-gotten wealth, perhaps diminutive in proportion only to the Marcoses’ stash.
His response? The charges are politically motivated!
So what? Bring them on. Open the windows wide and let the air of truth be fresh, clean and real.
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)