MANILA, 18 October 2006 — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s political enemies led by former President Corazon Aquino rushed yesterday to support opposition leader Jejomar Binay, who was holding out at the city hall of Makati to resist attempts by Malacañang to suspend him as mayor of the country’s financial district.
Hundreds of his supporters barricaded themselves around the city hall building since Monday night as the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) finally confirmed that Malacañang issued a 60-day suspension order against Binay and several other Makati officials for alleged graft.
Also issued suspension orders were Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado and 16 councilors, who were named in a complaint by a Binay rival to have conspired to maintain “ghost employees” at city hall.
Binay and the other officials vehemently denied the accusation.
“I am not going to leave my office,” said Binay. “This is plain harassment.”
Binay has been considered a thorn to the Arroyo government. He was in the forefront of the campaign to seek Arroyo’s resignation over her alleged rigging of the 2004 presidential elections.
Binay was the campaign manager of former actor Fernando Poe Jr., who was defeated by Arroyo in that election. Poe died of stroke later in 2004 while contesting the result of the poll.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno appealed for sobriety and told his men will not force their way into the city hall. He said the appointed caretaker mayor would be holding office at the old city hall building nearby.
“We will wait for the Court of Appeal’s decision on the petition of Mayor Binay to stop the implementation of the suspension order,” he said.
Crackdown on Opponents
Opposition leaders also said the suspension order was part of a crackdown by Arroyo against those who refused to submit to his authority.
“The suspension of Mayor Jejomar Binay shows ruthless, schizophrenic, hypocritical Gloria Macapagal Arroyo prosecuting local government officials who are against her while coddling others supporting her. It’s time to use all licit moves to check her abuses,” said an angry Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. in a statement.
House Minority Floor Leader Francis Escudero said Binay’s suspension was clearly a case of harassment against the administration’s perceived enemies.
“Why does the administration always seem to be looking for a fight and are harassing the opposition? Do they always want to have unrest? And to do it to the main international and local business district. Or do they really want to erase the opposition?” he asked.
Former President Aquino described the attempt to get rid of Binay as an injustice.
“We should show that we are all for justice,” Aquino said as she rallied support for Binay. “We are all for justice. We have seen the goodness of Mayor (Binay). In my opinion, he’s even a role model,” she said.
Arroyo’s estranged former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. also came to Binay’s side, saying greed should not be allowed to prevail without a fight.
Reps. Agapito Aquino of Makati and Imee Marcos of Ilocos Norte, Mayors JV Ejercito of San Juan also came, and so did leftist activists, who have seen Binay as an ally for allowing them to stage protest rallies against the Arroyo government in Makati.
The left-leaning Bayan vowed to join the barricade at the city hall and held Arroyo responsible for the crisis in Makati.
Sen. Edgardo Angara and Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., who called Binay’s suspension “pure and simple political persecution,” was an administration crackdown on the opposition in preparation for next year’s elections.
Magsaysay said Binay’s suspension was part of “a selective, partisan suspension of opposition mayors,” citing Pasay City’s Wenceslao Trinidad and Baguio’s Braulio Yaranan, both oppositionists.
‘Evenhanded Approach’
Presidential Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Malacañang has been “evenhanded by addressing not only cases against known critics (of Arroyo) but (also) cases against known supporters of the administration.”
Bunye cited the case of the mayor of Sta. Rosa in Laguna, the chief of the National Printing Office and the general manager of government-owned Radyo ng Bayan as proof of the administration’s fairness.
“This is part of due process and we can see that the administration has been fair in treating the different cases (that have been) filed, the pending cases, (there is) no favoritism,” Bunye told reporters.
“What is important is to let the law take its course and the concerned parties do not lose recourse to the law, (retain) access to all legal avenues, and let justice prevail.”
Bunye also said the suspension order against Binay was only preemptive in nature. (With input from Inquirer News Service)
