Category: Jejomar Binay

Binay in a freefall

Ellen Leave a comment

Going down fast.

Going down fast.

Obviously, Vice President Jejomar Binay’s early campaigning was not enough to offset the negative impact of the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee investigation which has exposed his alleged mindboggling corruption operations in Makati City.

His scores in Pulse Asia surveys on presidential preference, performance and trust ratings are in a freefall.

In the survey conducted November 14 to 20 Binay’s rating dropped by 21 percentage points (from 66 percent in September to only 45 percent in November).

His trust rating also took a steep decline – 20 percentage points, from 64 percent in September to 44 percent in November.

On presidential preference, he started from a high of 41 per cent in June-July 2014 survey, he dropped to 31 per cent in last September’s poll.

Last month Pulse Asia asked 1,200 adults all over the country who they would vote for president of the 14 names in the list if elections were held today. Binay was down to 26 per cent.

Steep decline of Binay's performance rating

Steep decline of Binay’s performance rating

It should be stressed that at 26 per cent, the Vice President is still the leading presidential hopeful. (Sen. Grace Poe is second with 18 percent followed by Sen.Miriam Santiago with 12 percent, and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada with 10 percent. Sen. Francis Escudero is if fifth with seven percent and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas is sixth with six per cent.)

It is 17 months away to the 2016 election. Binay sympathizers say there is still a lot of time for the people to forget all the corruption allegations and images of unexplained wealth like the Batangas Hacienda.
That is, if Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV are through with him.

The issues raised in the Senate hearings have taken a life of their own: More information on his dark dealings and connections are being fed to media. The Bureau of Internal Revenue is following tips that were brought out in the Senate investigation. Same thing with the Office of the Ombudsman.

For this Christmas season and in January, when the people would be pre-occupied with the visit of Pope Francis, Binay would have a respite. After that, the battle will continue.

It’s not only the Vice President. His wife, former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay, would be busy with her own graft cases. Of course, she would have no problem with posting bail but still, it’s stressful.

More plunder charges are expected to be filed against the vice president. He has to fend that off because plunder is unbailable. He can’t afford to be in detention during the campaign. That situation may turn him into a martyr but that would cramp his campaign.

Binay’s camp say that the Vice President cannot be sued invoking the Constitutional provision that “There shall be a Vice-President who shall have the same qualifications and term of office and be elected with, and in the same manner, as the President. He may be removed from office in the same manner as the President.”

One school of thought is that, since the President is immune from suit while in office and can only be removed by impeachment, the same applies to the Vice President.

There are other lawyers who disagree.

The question is expected to be brought before the Supreme Court. Until the issue is resolved, potential contributors will hold back and wait for clearer signals. That would adversely affect Binay’s campaign.

Further decline in voters preference would be extremely detrimental to Binay’s presidential ambition.

Binay in a freefall

Ellen Leave a comment

Going down fast.

Going down fast.

Obviously, Vice President Jejomar Binay’s early campaigning was not enough to offset the negative impact of the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee investigation which has exposed his alleged mindboggling corruption operations in Makati City.

His scores in Pulse Asia surveys on presidential preference, performance and trust ratings are in a freefall.

In the survey conducted November 14 to 20 Binay’s rating dropped by 21 percentage points (from 66 percent in September to only 45 percent in November).

His trust rating also took a steep decline – 20 percentage points, from 64 percent in September to 44 percent in November.

On presidential preference, he started from a high of 41 per cent in June-July 2014 survey, he dropped to 31 per cent in last September’s poll.

Last month Pulse Asia asked 1,200 adults all over the country who they would vote for president of the 14 names in the list if elections were held today. Binay was down to 26 per cent.

Steep decline of Binay's performance rating

Steep decline of Binay’s performance rating

It should be stressed that at 26 per cent, the Vice President is still the leading presidential hopeful. (Sen. Grace Poe is second with 18 percent followed by Sen.Miriam Santiago with 12 percent, and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada with 10 percent. Sen. Francis Escudero is if fifth with seven percent and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas is sixth with six per cent.)

It is 17 months away to the 2016 election. Binay sympathizers say there is still a lot of time for the people to forget all the corruption allegations and images of unexplained wealth like the Batangas Hacienda.
That is, if Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV are through with him.

The issues raised in the Senate hearings have taken a life of their own: More information on his dark dealings and connections are being fed to media. The Bureau of Internal Revenue is following tips that were brought out in the Senate investigation. Same thing with the Office of the Ombudsman.

For this Christmas season and in January, when the people would be pre-occupied with the visit of Pope Francis, Binay would have a respite. After that, the battle will continue.

It’s not only the Vice President. His wife, former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay, would be busy with her own graft cases. Of course, she would have no problem with posting bail but still, it’s stressful.

More plunder charges are expected to be filed against the vice president. He has to fend that off because plunder is unbailable. He can’t afford to be in detention during the campaign. That situation may turn him into a martyr but that would cramp his campaign.

Binay’s camp say that the Vice President cannot be sued invoking the Constitutional provision that “There shall be a Vice-President who shall have the same qualifications and term of office and be elected with, and in the same manner, as the President. He may be removed from office in the same manner as the President.”

One school of thought is that, since the President is immune from suit while in office and can only be removed by impeachment, the same applies to the Vice President.

There are other lawyers who disagree.

The question is expected to be brought before the Supreme Court. Until the issue is resolved, potential contributors will hold back and wait for clearer signals. That would adversely affect Binay’s campaign.

Further decline in voters preference would be extremely detrimental to Binay’s presidential ambition.

Binay in a freefall

Ellen Leave a comment

Going down fast.

Going down fast.

Obviously, Vice President Jejomar Binay’s early campaigning was not enough to offset the negative impact of the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee investigation which has exposed his alleged mindboggling corruption operations in Makati City.

His scores in Pulse Asia surveys on presidential preference, performance and trust ratings are in a freefall.

In the survey conducted November 14 to 20 Binay’s rating dropped by 21 percentage points (from 66 percent in September to only 45 percent in November).

His trust rating also took a steep decline – 20 percentage points, from 64 percent in September to 44 percent in November.

On presidential preference, he started from a high of 41 per cent in June-July 2014 survey, he dropped to 31 per cent in last September’s poll.

Last month Pulse Asia asked 1,200 adults all over the country who they would vote for president of the 14 names in the list if elections were held today. Binay was down to 26 per cent.

Steep decline of Binay's performance rating

Steep decline of Binay’s performance rating

It should be stressed that at 26 per cent, the Vice President is still the leading presidential hopeful. (Sen. Grace Poe is second with 18 percent followed by Sen.Miriam Santiago with 12 percent, and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada with 10 percent. Sen. Francis Escudero is if fifth with seven percent and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas is sixth with six per cent.)

It is 17 months away to the 2016 election. Binay sympathizers say there is still a lot of time for the people to forget all the corruption allegations and images of unexplained wealth like the Batangas Hacienda.
That is, if Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV are through with him.

The issues raised in the Senate hearings have taken a life of their own: More information on his dark dealings and connections are being fed to media. The Bureau of Internal Revenue is following tips that were brought out in the Senate investigation. Same thing with the Office of the Ombudsman.

For this Christmas season and in January, when the people would be pre-occupied with the visit of Pope Francis, Binay would have a respite. After that, the battle will continue.

It’s not only the Vice President. His wife, former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay, would be busy with her own graft cases. Of course, she would have no problem with posting bail but still, it’s stressful.

More plunder charges are expected to be filed against the vice president. He has to fend that off because plunder is unbailable. He can’t afford to be in detention during the campaign. That situation may turn him into a martyr but that would cramp his campaign.

Binay’s camp say that the Vice President cannot be sued invoking the Constitutional provision that “There shall be a Vice-President who shall have the same qualifications and term of office and be elected with, and in the same manner, as the President. He may be removed from office in the same manner as the President.”

One school of thought is that, since the President is immune from suit while in office and can only be removed by impeachment, the same applies to the Vice President.

There are other lawyers who disagree.

The question is expected to be brought before the Supreme Court. Until the issue is resolved, potential contributors will hold back and wait for clearer signals. That would adversely affect Binay’s campaign.

Further decline in voters preference would be extremely detrimental to Binay’s presidential ambition.

Binay in a freefall

Ellen Leave a comment

Going down fast.

Going down fast.

Obviously, Vice President Jejomar Binay’s early campaigning was not enough to offset the negative impact of the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee investigation which has exposed his alleged mindboggling corruption operations in Makati City.

His scores in Pulse Asia surveys on presidential preference, performance and trust ratings are in a freefall.

In the survey conducted November 14 to 20 Binay’s rating dropped by 21 percentage points (from 66 percent in September to only 45 percent in November).

His trust rating also took a steep decline – 20 percentage points, from 64 percent in September to 44 percent in November.

On presidential preference, he started from a high of 41 per cent in June-July 2014 survey, he dropped to 31 per cent in last September’s poll.

Last month Pulse Asia asked 1,200 adults all over the country who they would vote for president of the 14 names in the list if elections were held today. Binay was down to 26 per cent.

Steep decline of Binay's performance rating

Steep decline of Binay’s performance rating

It should be stressed that at 26 per cent, the Vice President is still the leading presidential hopeful. (Sen. Grace Poe is second with 18 percent followed by Sen.Miriam Santiago with 12 percent, and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada with 10 percent. Sen. Francis Escudero is if fifth with seven percent and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas is sixth with six per cent.)

It is 17 months away to the 2016 election. Binay sympathizers say there is still a lot of time for the people to forget all the corruption allegations and images of unexplained wealth like the Batangas Hacienda.
That is, if Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV are through with him.

The issues raised in the Senate hearings have taken a life of their own: More information on his dark dealings and connections are being fed to media. The Bureau of Internal Revenue is following tips that were brought out in the Senate investigation. Same thing with the Office of the Ombudsman.

For this Christmas season and in January, when the people would be pre-occupied with the visit of Pope Francis, Binay would have a respite. After that, the battle will continue.

It’s not only the Vice President. His wife, former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay, would be busy with her own graft cases. Of course, she would have no problem with posting bail but still, it’s stressful.

More plunder charges are expected to be filed against the vice president. He has to fend that off because plunder is unbailable. He can’t afford to be in detention during the campaign. That situation may turn him into a martyr but that would cramp his campaign.

Binay’s camp say that the Vice President cannot be sued invoking the Constitutional provision that “There shall be a Vice-President who shall have the same qualifications and term of office and be elected with, and in the same manner, as the President. He may be removed from office in the same manner as the President.”

One school of thought is that, since the President is immune from suit while in office and can only be removed by impeachment, the same applies to the Vice President.

There are other lawyers who disagree.

The question is expected to be brought before the Supreme Court. Until the issue is resolved, potential contributors will hold back and wait for clearer signals. That would adversely affect Binay’s campaign.

Further decline in voters preference would be extremely detrimental to Binay’s presidential ambition.

Binay 2016 scenario: The worst is yet to come

Ellen Leave a comment

Binay distributes health cards in Cagayan de Oro.

Binay distributes health cards in Cagayan de Oro.

After Vice President Jejomar Binay backed out of the scheduled debate, which he himself suggested, with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, many asked if he is also reconsidering his announced presidential bid in 2016.

Binay immediately shut down the idea re-assuring his allies that there is no backing out of his ambition to be the next president of the Philippines, something that shudders many who imagine the level of corruption would it be under his presidency.

Binay gave the reason why he is pursuing his presidential plans despite the perception that he is severely damaged: “Napakalaki ng lamang ko. Never in the history na may ganun, hindi naman ganun kaagad ang lamang” (I keep a wide lead in surveys. Never in history that someone is leading the race by a wide margin).”

Which is true.

Despite the huge drop in voters’ preference for the 2016 elections for him – from 41 percent in the May 2014 survey to 31 percent in last September’s poll, he is still the frontrunner. Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, the Liberal Party’s expected bet, trails way behind at 13 percent despite scoring an almost double increase.

Binay’s confidence got further boost by the results of the survey conducted at the height of the Senate hearing on his controversial sprawling hacienda in Batangas by Novo Trends PH, a new research agency led by political analyst Ramon Casiple, which showed that most of Metro Manilas would vote for him for president if elections were held today.

Some political analysts say that the hearings of the Blue Ribbon subcommittee which had uncovered Binay’s alleged awesome wealth came too early. They say that by next year, the voters would have forgotten about the controversies.

They say Binay is just riding out the controversies which he expects his detractors would not be able to sustain much longer.

Analysts take a cynical view about the effect on the voters of the controversy saying that with enormous war chest, Binay would be able to buy his way out of the scandal and to the presidency.

Such political strategy banks on the ignorance and apathy of the voters and takes for granted the determination of the three senators – Antonio Trillanes IV, Alan Peter Cayetano, and Aquilino Pimentel III – to pursue the investigation to its fullest.

It also underestimates the contempt of the public for corrupt officials and what a no-nonsense Ombudsman can do.

Mrs. Binay tours friends in Hacienda in 2010 Facebook post.

Mrs. Binay tours friends in Batangas Hacienda in 2010 Facebook post.

Next year, when Binay would be consolidating his nationwide network and intensifying his fundraising campaign, he, members of his family and associates would find themselves embroiled in graft and plunder cases.

His wife, Dr. Elenita Binay, who was Makati mayor for the period 1998 through 2001, in fact, is already in deep legal hole. She is facing seven legal cases in the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan.

Last week, the Sandiganbayan denied Mrs. Binay’s motion to suspend the proceedings on the charges of malversation and graft charges against her in connection with the alleged anomalous purchase of hospital beds worth P36 million in 2001. (The supplier for those hospitals beds was businessman Antonio Tiu, who is now being accused as Binay’s dummy in his 350-hectare Batangas hacienda.)

Binay himself has been charged with P1.5 billion plunder in connection with the alleged overpriced Makati parking building. Others named in the plunder case are his son, Junjun, the current Makati mayor and councilors.

Trillanes expects more plunder and other charges to be filed against Binay next year from evidence gathered by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.

Impeachment has been ruled out due to apparent lack of numbers. House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, a known supporter of Binay in the 2010 elections, has said that the vice president cannot be impeached for his acts as mayor.

It is expected that Binay would invoke immunity from suits. It is expected also that this question will reach the Supreme Court.

These issues will seriously hound Binay’s campaign and cause his prospective contributors to hold off the funds needed to oil his campaign machinery.

When Binay said last week that the “worst is over,” he knows that it is just beginning. The worst is yet to come.