MANILA, Philippines – Last August
23, 2014, Saturday, the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) called on Sen.
Antonio Trillanes IV to apologize to his fellow senators for irreverently saying
their lack of attendance in his investigation of overpricing allegations in
Makati was either out of respect or fear of Vice President Jejomar Binay.
Trillanes who authored the senate investigation of this alleged corruption of Makati Mayor Binay expressed his disappointments with the previous response. “What is he saying, that his fellow senators are cowards?” UNA secretary general and Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco said. Tiangco reminded the senator of Binay’s record as an activist and human rights lawyer during the martial law years. Tiangco added that Binay is a defender of the Constitution and of the administration of former President Corazon Aquino against military adventurists. “Who is gunpowder-minded? Is it Vice President or Senator Trillanes?” Tiangco asked, referring to the senator’s participation in the failed Oakwood Mutiny and the Peninsula siege in 2003. “His messianic complex is again shown and his grandstanding at the expense of his colleagues. What does he want to show? That he is the only one who is brave in the Senate?” Tiangco said. Tiangco said Trillanes should not blame the vice president and his fellow senators if his Senate “gimmick” was poorly attended. “His fellow senators probably realize that for one, the national budget should be a priority over a politically-motivated probe based on mere allegations of political detractors of the vice president and his family,” Tiangco said.
Tiangco disputed Trillanes’ claim that the first
hearing on the alleged overpricing of Makati City Hall Parking Building 2
heightened the complaint against the vice president. He also said in an
interview that the hearing also exposed the partiality of Trillanes and Sen.
Alan Peter Cayetano who acted as the lawyer for Binays’ detractors while
humiliating Makati Mayor Junjun Binay and officials and technical employees of
the Commission on Audit (COA) who had already submitted a report stated that
there was no overpricing in the project.
