Indispensable who?

THE cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men,” French President Charles de Gaulle once said. That was, of course, before Vice President Jejomar Binay, began acting as if he were indispensable.

Mr. Binay this week indicated, believe it nor not, the make-up of his Cabinet when “president.” Was the man conscious of the arrogance? He'd not sign on politicians, added Mr. Binay, who assumed Filipinos would vote him into Malacañang.

Will we?

Thousands of protesters, led by entertainers Jim Paredes and Cynthia Patag hoofed through Makati’s business district Wednesday [June 11]. They demanded Mr. Binay jettison his campaign. Sen. Aquillino “Koko” Pimentel vowed to help shatter the Binay political dynasty.

“We expected about 200,” Mr. Paredes said. “But they brought hundreds of others along... When the Binays talk, it is as they were already winners. We want them to know there are many people who will not vote for them...?

“As a candidate, the least Binay can do is answer charges against him,” the rallyists said. Saying the raps are "politically motivated is a lame answer."

The latest completed Social Weather Station (SWS) poll (first quarter of 2015) documented a statistical tie between Binay and Sen. Grace Poe.

“Considering the survey’s three percent margin of error, Mr. Binay and Ms. Poe are, technically, tied statistically in the March 15 survey,” SWS said. Poe has not yet announced she’d bid for the presidency. The betting odds are Binay’s slide will continue.

No one volunteered to run as vice–president with Mr. Binay. So he sighed for a team mate who would be a businessman.

This bubbling political cauldron reminds us of the Bicolano proverb: Daing tagong hilom na di mahayag sa dacol. [There is no hidden secret that will later not be known.]

“Presidential” pretensions cannot exorcise plunder charges filed by the Ombudsman in the multi-million-peso Makati City parking building contract by the Binays.

This is an 11-story building with a roof deck, one-level basement parking and 5 floors of parking area. Total area is 31,928 square meters.

National Statistics Office data show average construction cost should have been P7,691/sq. m. In fact, it was overpriced by more than P1.314 billion, Rappler reports. “The final price was pegged at P1.56 billion."

The nine-page Ombudsman rap sheet accuses Mr. Binay of sleaze in the contract for “the most expensive parking building in the entire country, if not the world.”

Mr. Binay and son, incumbent Makati Mayor Erwin "Junjun" Binay, "violated every rule in construction manuals and government procedures. (These resulted) over six times the official cost, the charges claimed.

Mayor Binay rejected the raps as “fabricated and clearly connected to the 2016 elections.” But the Binays did not address the allegations head-on.

The Binays will face the complaint. That’s all he said. Why? Do they have a choice?

The source of Mr. Binay’s “personal funds is a puzzle,” ABS-CBN’s Inday Espina Varona wrote. Deduct payments to Canadian research firms plus excess of campaign contributions. What still remains in the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report “raise awkward questions.”

They led the Court of Appeals to freeze Binay’s and his wife Elenita’s bank accounts. These ballooned from P3,293,307 in 2006 to P28,738,008 in 2013.

In contrast, President Benigno Aquino III’s personal income increased by P1.8 million last year. Did PNoy lack Mr. Binay’s “Midas touch?”

Bloated funds came from “excess from campaign contributions,” shrug Binay spokesmen. They were capped by divestment proceeds from JCB Farms, a piggery business in Batangas.

“Up until 2010, the Binays’ statement of assets and liabilities looked like that of any middle class family with some land holdings: comfortable but not that liquid,” adds Ms. Varona. “Certainly, not rolling in cash.”

Reeling meanwhile from Court and AMLC charges, Mr. Binay Sr. hit out at “inexperienced leaders.” Did Mr. Binay mean Ms. Poe? No? Perhaps, Mr. Binay meant his inexperienced daughter and novice senator Nancy.

Responding to Mr. Binay’s barely disguised dig, Ms. Poe snapped back: “It is also important to have honest leaders.” True. But Mr. Binay and his UNA spokespersons dodged that one. Is it because “honesty” is not in their dictionary?

In 2008, Mr. Binay’s financial officer Gerardo Limlingan Jr. emerged as vice president of Agrifortuna, which the Binays incorporated in 1992.

The corporation’s administrator until 2011 was a Binay employee: Lily Hernandez Crystal. Both scrammed.

AMLC names Mr. Limlingan and Ms. Crystal as Binay’s partners in five joint accounts. It also lists seven more accounts solely under the name of the Vice President—who protests he has only five accounts.

As early as 2008, when he left Agrifortuna, Mr. Binay’s joint accounts with Mr. Limlingan moved big amounts of cash, says the AMLC tally.

But the sudden movement of money, within a span of a month and a half, with no commensurate income to report, needs to be explained by the Vice President.

In the years thereafter, Binay-Limlingan joint accounts showed P10 million moved, either as debit (P2.5 million on May 25, 2011), credit (P4.1 million, Nov. 20, 2012) or outright withdrawal (P4 million, Feb. 4, 2013.), Ms. Varona documents.

The Vice President’s cash in bank had by then breached P20 million.

He declared P3 million in receivables in 2011 and P6 million in 2012. By 2013, he listed only P500,000 in receivables. His liabilities for 2011 and 2012 were at P6 million and in 2013, P5.6 million, for a lease-to-own vehicle.

During the May 2010 elections and after, Mr. Binay was shifting bursts of cash often on the same day, in his overflowing personal accounts.

“The big sums moved are not commensurate to the Vice President’s salary,” Ms. Varona noted.

“In 1988, Binay only declared a net worth of P2.5 million net worth. If he had other businesses earning income for him all these years, why doesn’t his SALN reflect this?” Ms. Varona wonders.

The Senate, meanwhile, ordered the arrest of Mr. Limlingan, Ms. Crystal and 15 others in connection with Court order and its own probe of the Binays. “You are bullying my friends,” Mr. Binay fumed.

The Senate sergeant-at-arms and arresting teams returned empty handed. Mr. Limlingan, Ms. Crystal and cohorts had flown the coop, they told Senate President Franklin Drilon.

“Political vendetta” sneered the “indispensable man”.