KNOW THE REAL BINAY
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS. The rags to riches tale of Makati Mayor Jojo Binay is nothing short of phenomenal. Orphaned at a young age, Binay was practically dirt poor for a good part of his adult life. Before the 1986 People Power Revolution, Jojo Binay was a human rights lawyer who could hardly make ends meet under martial law. He lived in a small run-down house in San Antonio Village and drove a “karag karag” car, the only vehicle he owned. To his credit, this part of his propaganda is true.
THE RISE OF BINAY AND FAMILY. But as the saying goes, it’s better to be lucky than good. After the 1986 People Power Revolution, lady luck smiled twice on Binay. His close affinity to President Cory Aquino as one of her “hawi boys” led to his appointment as officer-in-charge of the then Municipality of Makati. Binay’s luck continued when Mayor Nemesio Yabut (a staunch defender of the Marcos dictatorship) died of a heart attack during the 1986 People Power Revolution without being able to groom a worthy successor from among his children, relatives and followers.
Unlike his patron, Cory Aquino who eschewed political power, Binay embraced it and refused to let go. Being ruthless, he abandoned his political allies who belonged to the opposition during the dark years of the Marcos dictatorship. In place of them, he began recruiting and consolidating his own political machinery from the remnants of the organization of the late Mayor Yabut. And so, began the political odyssey of Jojo Binay, the politician. Of course, what is good for Binay is not necessarily what is good for the City of Makati and its residents. The Yabut operators now siding with Binay taught him all they knew about the money-making rackets in Makati, using the powers of the Mayor. Thus, after just a little over one year in office as Makati OIC, Binay was already able to accumulate millions in bribes and kickbacks to fund his mayoralty campaign in 1988. Of course, he won and the Binay family became the political lords of Makati. He continued and even expanded the rackets and kickback schemes even when his wife replaced him as Makati Mayor. His wife succeeded him as Mayor when he was MMDA Chairman while his son is now running for Mayor. His daughter is now a Congressman who is running for reelection. Contrary to his prior stand as a leftist during the Marcos years, he was able to firmly establish a Political Dynasty is Makati. Apparently, Makati City now is too small for him. After plundering the coffers of Makati City, the richest city in the country but cannot even pay its taxes to the BIR, he wants to plunder now the coffers of the country. If he wins on Monday, he will be the male GMA, using the Vice-Presidency, ousting incoming President Noynoy to become President later on.
SKYROCKETING NET WORTH. Among the many issues hounding Binay are repeated allegations of GRAFT AND CORRUPTION. From a struggling human rights lawyer until 1986, the declared net worth of Jojo Binay skyrocketed in tandem with the growth of his political clout. By 2008, Binay’s Statement of Assets, Liability and Net Worth (SALN) declared a net worth of P43.94 Million. His 30-year old daughter Abigail, a member of the House of Representatives, had a net worth of P29.4 Million based on her 2008 SALN despite barely practicing her profession as a lawyer. She graduated from law school only a few years ago. Even if the two (2) SALNs accurately reflect Binay’s wealth, it still does not tally with his meager salary as a public servant.
Binay or any member of his family has no known businesses that can justify their total net worth even assuming that their SALNs accurately reflect their actual net worth. In fact, these do not include the declared net worth of his son Junjun, who was previously a councilor and now running for mayor to succeed in his throne of his father, and his wife Elenita, who briefly succeeded him as Makati Mayor.
Today, the Binays own (through relatives, cronies fronting for them, and dummy corporations) numerous houses in exclusive Forbes Park, Urdaneta, San Lorenzo and Dasmariñas Villages, posh condominium units, and even lavish vacation houses in the US. Of course, all these ill-gotten wealth are not declared in their SALNs.
It not likely that Jojo Binay accumulated his enormous wealth during his stint as a human rights lawyer. His humble begginings are now just a distant memory. Binay has come a long way from the “Rambotito” we know!
GANITO KAMI SA MAKATI! P1.2 Billion is the amount of taxes Makati City owes to BIR. Yet, despite being the richest city in the country, it has no money to pay its taxes. Among the Binay’s rackets was using the new Makati City Hall and the Ospital ng Makati as CASH COWS netting them over P221 MILLION in anomalous and overpriced contracts. No wonder Makati City is now deep in debt to the BIR for non-remittance of taxes! One need not look further than the enclosed reports from the Commission on Audit (COA) to draw these conclusions. THE BINAYS ARE THE NEXT ARROYOS!
MAKATI CITY HALL. Elenita Binay, Jojo Binay’s declared wife, briefly succeeded him as Makati Mayor but everyone knows that Binay was still running the show in City Hall. The 2002 COA Audit shows that the BInays were involved the overpricing of supplies, materials, furniture and equipment used in the Makati City Hall to the tune of over P110 Million! Here are some examples cited in the COA report:
· The COA found highly irregular the bidding and awards, through negotiations/repeat order of various Purchase Orders (PO) that favored Office Gallery International, Inc. and Asia Concept International, Inc. for the supply and installation of office partitions, connectors and furniture for the new Makati City Hall Building.
· Among the modus operandi used were the participation of related bidders, awards made prior to the date of the bidding, repeat orders made beyond the allowed periods and based on a PO which that is the product of a rigged bidding, negotiated prices that were higher than the prices offered by other similar suppliers and quotation by all suppliers for similar items, procurement of furnitures despite the absence of a furniture layout plan.
· The transactions were found to be excessive both in price and quantity, causing undue injury to the government amounting to P110,249,869.07 representing the amount of overpricing and excess quantity of materials purchased.
OSPITAL NG MAKATI. Even the funds for health care of Makati residents were not spared by the Binays! The Binays netted the amount of over P111 Million in anomalous and overpriced contracts for the supply of hospital equipment for the poor. Here are some of the COA Report findings. (Attached are official COA Audit Reports.)
· The COA found anomalous and overpriced transactions involving Apollo Medical Equipment and Supplies which misrepresented that equipment were being sourced from the US but were actually manufactured and sourced from Taiwan. Apollo, the favored supplier of the Binays, tampered product brochures, packaging and product, and manufactured fictitious certificates of dealership, delivery of entirely different (and inferior) products from the ones specified in the POs and manufactures fictitious warranties. The scheme swindled Makati City the amount of P61,249,242.72.
· Ospital ng Makati requested for an autoclave sterilizing machine and specified a heavy duty SICOA Tuttnauer autoclave together with other medical equipment. What were actually delivered by Apollo were 5 Tau Steril portatile automatic dry heat sterilizers and 3 Tau Steril mini-automatic dry sterilizers, which did not only meet specifications but were in fact, extremely overpriced. Makati City paid a total of P10.46 Million for the equipment which should only be priced at P120,500 resulting in an overprice of P10,339,500.
· Ospital ng Makati requested for 1 set of Fetal Monitor BDX 4/5 Antepartum/Intrapartum. The request was approved and then a check in the amount of P2,582,545.45 was drawn. Binay conspired with Apollo in swindling Makati City the amount of P2,142,000.00 by accepting the delivery of a different and much inferior machine. The COA audit team found the value of the inferior machine to be around P538,000 only!
· The Binays entered into a fraudulent transaction with Apollo in the supply and delivery of 188 units of hospital beds, 202 units of bedside cabinets, 10 ICU beds and 4 orthopedic beds at P148,000, P17,850, P545,000 and P480,000.00 per unit, respectively. Apollo claimed that the foregoing items were made by UGM-MEDISYS of New Jersey, USA. However, it was actually discovered that the same were manufactured in Taiwan by Juhng Mei/Chya Hung Medical Treatment Instruments Factory Company Ltd. and distributed in the Philippines by Mabuhay 2000 Enterprises, Inc. By claiming that the products were made in the U.S.A., Apollo was able to command a higher price resulting in a overprice of P31,076,242.72, inclusive of importation duties and resulting in a 100% profit margin for Apollo and the BInays.
· The Binays purchased 1 unit of ultrasound equipment described as SICOA-Dynaview at P7.98 Million from Apollo which claimed to be an exclusive distributor. However, what was delivered was an inferior machine, GE RT 3200 Advantage H, which costs only P1,299,750. The result was an overprice of as much as P6,680,250!
· The Binays paid the amount of P1.6 Million for 1 unit universal X-ray machine despite the absence of the equipment as described in the supporting documents to the disbursement voucher. The documents, (i.e. delivery receipt, report of inspection, certificate of purchase and delivery of supplies, memorandum receipt) were falsified in order to make it appear that indeed delivery was made when in fact there was none. This is clearly a case of ghost delivery!
· In another transaction involving the supply of UGM MEDISYS System Cryosurgical Unit and 2 units Volumetric Pressure Pump, amounting to P9,900. Only the pumps were delivered costing at least P75,000.00 each. The supporting documents were altered to make it appear that the cryosurgical unit was also delivered. Clearly, this is another case of a ghost delivery that caused injury to the Makati City to lose as much as P9.75 Million!
CHILDRENS BOOKS. Even books for poor students in the public schools in Makati City were not spared! The Binays purchased books amounting to P124,924,220.40 and P98,750,724.26 in 2000 and 2001 without securing the best terms for the government. The maximum unit price per book allowed by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports were applied instead of negotiating discounts, contrary to DECS Order No. 35 series of 2000. As a result, the total amount of discounts not availed of by Makati is P18,332,541, which is viewed as a loss to the Makati City. COA concluded the investigation stating that the discounts were indeed granted but not reported as they had been pocketed by the Binays.
COMPUTERS. Computers and printers were purchased by the Binays from Micro Server Information System at P7,229,645. The same supplier quoted only PP2,394,175 for the same set of items in quotations submitted to COA. A review of the quotations submitted to the COA in 1999 showed that the prices of COMPAQ Deskpro EP Pentium III 500mhz with hard disk ranging from 6 GB to 10 GB ranged between P52,080 to P54,308 per unit.
The specifications of the bidded item matched the specifications of the unit purchased by Makati City for the price of P129,960 per unit in 2000. Normally, prices of computers decline as other models of higher specifications and capacity are introduced in the market. In the case of Makati City, the price is even higher by 139% when the same was purchased in July 2000.
CAMPAIGN FUNDS. Jojo Binay is the only Vice Presidential candidate in Philippine history who is even outspending by hundreds of millions his own presidential running mate in campaign advertisements aired much earlier than the actual campaign. Where did Binay get the hundreds of millions for his expensive TV ads that began airing since early last year? He has deep pockets and still boasts of millions of ill-gotten wealth in his campaign kitty to spend! Thanks to the people’s money in the coffers of Makati City!
BINAY FOR VICE PRESIDENT! Jojo Binay’s slogan seems to be “First Makati, next the Philippines!” Binay managed to hold on to power for more than 20 years in Makati City because of the enormous wealth he accumulated through corrupt deals and the political power he successfully consolidated. This is the same modus operandi used by another politician who ruled the Philippines for more than 20 years, Ferdinand Marcos. The same modus operandi used by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who has ruled for 9 years. Ironically, Binay distinguishes himself from the politicians whose styles he actually copied drawing on his association with Cory Aquino, who must be now turning in her grave! BEWARE, Binay will be the next Arroyo.
The reality is, Jojo Binay is no different from his running mate Erap Estrada: both of them are not only confirmed womanizers, they are also plunderers! The plunderer of the country is paired with the plunderer of Makati! Binay now wants to follow the footsteps of his idol Erap. He wants to become a plunderer of the nation by becoming Vice President this year and President Binay by 2016 or even earlier by ousting President Noynoy!
Bagay na bagay talaga si Binay at Erap!
WE IN MAKATI KNOW THE REAL JOJO BINAY!
IT IS ABOUT TIME THE REST OF THE COUNTRY GETS TO KNOW THE REAL JOJO BINAY!
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