Veteran columnist twits Binay PEDROSA ON BANK SAVINGS: DUTERTE P4-M; VP BINAY P600-M?

By Manny Piñol

A veteran newspaper columnist and book author has asked Vice President Jejomar Binay to share his secret in earning P600-M in 23 years since he was elected Mayor of Makati when Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who served for the same period, has less than P4-M in his bank account.

Philippine Star columnist Carmen N. Pedrosa, author of the book “The Rise and Fall of Imelda Marcos” and mother of international television anchor Veronica Pedrosa, posed the question to the embattled Vice President in an open letter printed in her column today.

Pedrosa wrote the open letter as a reply to a letter sent to her by Vice President Binay following a scathing column about the Presidential contender published earlier.

“Your daughter was quoted by the press denying you had billions of pesos. She said your family only had P600 million in their bank accounts and that these were the fruits of your hard work. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao has less than P4 million in his bank account, the fruits of his hard work,” Pedrosa wrote in the open letter to Binay.

“I can understand that Makati pays its mayor better wages than Davao. I can also understand that being creative and innovative can augment a mayor’s income. Why not show proof how you augmented your income? Why not open your bank accounts to public scrutiny? You owe this to the people whom you expect to vote for you as president,” Pedrosa asked Binay.

Binay, who has publicly declared his intention to run for President in 2016, and Duterte who has repeatedly rejected calls for him to consider the presidency, have come under close scrutiny as they both figure prominently, along with Senator Grace Poe and Secretary Manuel Roxas III, in the survey of presidential probables.

Beside the fact that Binay and Duterte have dominated politics in their respective political turfs and have family members who are also into politics,

there is hardly anything else that would compare Duterte to Binay.

Binay ran for Vice President and won while Duterte chose to remain Mayor of Davao City, except for short stints as Congressman and Vice Mayor following the end of his first and second 9-year-term limits.

Now, Binay makes no secret of his craving to become President while Duterte has rebuffed and rejected calls for him to be President.

Binay, 72, said he is capable of continuing President Aquino’s “Daang Matured” while Duterte, 70, says he is too old for the job.

Binay and his children live in posh villages in Makati with reports alleging that Binay son and suspended Makati Mayor Erwin Binay’s home has an elevator, while Duterte lives in a low-cost housing subdivision in Matina, Davao City.

Binay travels in a convoy of police cars and luxurious vehicles while Duterte uses two old and worn-out pick-up trucks to travel in his city.

Binay is officious and his presence is emphasized by the sirens of the police cars while Duterte blends with the crowd wearing denim pants and loose T-shirts.

Binay and his wife and son are facing plunder charges before the Ombudsman and his career was peppered with allegations of corruption while Duterte has remained unstained by the same issues.

Binay is alleged to have demanded favours from businessmen operating in his city, including charges that he demands a unit in the buildings being constructed in his city.

Duterte has shunned dealings with businessmen, even returning campaign contributions and warning businessmen against attempting to bribe city government employees.

Duterte’s Davao is the 4th safest city in the World while Binay’s Makati which is the richest in the country is nowhere near the list.

The stark contrasts could go on and on.

Pedrosa’s stinging open letter also pointed out to Binay that the problems he is facing now were mainly self-inflicted.

“Mr. Vice President, I am afraid you brought these troubles upon yourself,” she said referring to accusations of corruption and plunder filed against Binay and his family members.

Here is the open letter of Carmen N. Pedrosa which is now trending in the social media”

“Dear Mr. Vice President,

“I am pleased to hear of the efforts you have made as mayor of Makati to improve the lives of the poor and the need to change the imbalance between rich and poor. I totally agree this need not be a confrontation between the two and that it is possible to work with the rich to benefit the poor.

“How you intend to do this as president is not clear from the program you described when launching UNA the other day. The program falls short of details. As it stands, it is a litany of motherhood statements that most politicians are prone to make.

“Makati is only a microcosm of the whole country. The problems of the nation are wider in scope and much more complex. What works for Makati may not necessarily work for the nation.

“Chief among our national problems is the rotten political system. Many of the other problems can be traced to the system. It is because of this that Bayanko and its partners in the marginalized sector favor constitutional change to a parliamentary federal form of government. For too long, the oligarchs and family dynasties in this country have dominated the political system to the exclusion of the marginalized sector. Your own family, sad to say, forms part of the established order that resists change. Nancy has been quoted as saying she favors political dynasties. Why? Are they the only ones out of 100 million Filipinos who can govern the nation?

“It is not surprising therefore that your program remains silent on this issue. It is not by handing out birthday cakes to the marginalized that we can lift the majority of our people out of poverty and close the widening gap between rich and poor.

“The allegations of plunder by your political enemies may be part of a demolition campaign. But your good friend Grace Poe saw it fit to sign the Senate committee report recommending that you be charged with plunder. You were given a chance to appear before the Senate to face your accusers and cross-examine them. You were given a chance to provide evidence to refute the accusations like in any court of law. But instead you refused to appear, hiding behind the cloak of the vice-presidency, denying all the allegations because you say so. Now anybody watching this drama would have said, ‘If he is innocent, why won’t he appear? Is he hiding something?’

“Mr. Vice President, I am afraid you brought these troubles upon yourself.

“Your daughter was quoted by the press denying you had billions of pesos. She said your family only had P600 million in their bank accounts and that these were the fruits of your hard work. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao has less than P4 million in his bank account, the fruits of his hard work.

“I can understand that Makati pays its mayor better wages than Davao. I can also understand that being creative and innovative can augment a mayor’s income. Why not show proof how you augmented your income? Why not open your bank accounts to public scrutiny? You owe this to the people whom you expect to vote for you as president.

“As a responsible journalist with a history of fighting for what is right as you correctly pointed out, I go by facts, I go by documents. I carefully analyze them, as I did when doing research on my books about Imelda Marcos. I don’t go simply by what the accused says in his defense. The accused has to provide proof to demonstrate his innocence. Now when the accused has irrefutably demonstrated his innocence, I would be the first to support and praise him.

“I have nothing personal against the people I criticize in my columns and in the social media. I criticize those leaders whom I believe deserve to be criticized. If I did not, I would be failing in my duties as a journalist.

“Finally, with the PCOS machines, I was wondering why you are still running for president. Isn’t it obvious who the next president will be?”