Vice President Jejomar C. Binay yesterday slammed the “embarrassing
performance of some government agencies” four years into the Aquino
administration.
He stressed that the much-vaunted sterling domestic economic growth
figures have not really trickled down to assisting small businesses and
uplifting the poor.
While he praised “some right things” done by the administration like
“squeaky-clean governance at the top, dogged strategies for revenue
generation, government spending, resulting in the overall optimism in
the prospects of the Philippine economy,” Binay said that some
government agencies have failed in delivering basic services to the
people.
“Yet, it seems, we are still not doing things right. There are some
items in our development agenda that can and should be addressed now,”
he said in his speech at the 40th Philippine Business Conference and
Expo at the Manila Hotel.
The Vice President issued the stinging comments a week after
assailing the biases of the current administration, including what he
called the unfair treatment former President and now Pampanga Rep.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is getting.
Binay slammed the worsening traffic in the metropolis; the failure of
government in improving the country’s mass transport system; the
impending power crisis; high importation of rice; and the deterioration
of the peace and order in the country.
“Four years into this administration, several sectors have fallen embarrassingly short on performance,” he said.
“Traffic is at a standstill in Metro Manila and other urban centers,
worsened by an antiquated mass transit system. Poor planning and
bureaucratic inefficiencies have unabashedly wasted the opportunities to
improve the country’s transport systems. The brakes of MRT trains fail,
doors fall off, and signaling systems dangerously stall,” he ranted.
The Vice President also slammed the sorry state of the Ninoy Aquino
International Airport and how poor planning led to the country’s
impending power crisis, high importation of rice, and the deterioration
of the peace and order in the country.
“Criminality is rising at an unprecedented rate, with an alarming
number committed by rogue policemen. These require the attention of
government now,” he said.
Instead of finding solutions to these problems, Binay lamented that
“some senators choose to focus on assassinating his character.”
He was apparently referring to the ongoing Senate probe against him
over alleged anomalies in the Makati City government during his time as
mayor.
“As motorists inch their way through the traffic hobbled streets of
the our cities, as Metro Manila commuters risk their lives every day
riding in old and ill-maintained trains, as our countrymen and foreign
visitors suffer entry through the world’s worst airport, as our people
live daily in rising fear of danger to life and property, not trusting
those whose job is to protect and keep safe our people, we are treated
to the spectacle of a political assassination, live on national
television, every week,” he said.
“The irony is that the Senate zarzuela is staged by no less than
those who have failed in their primary duty to ease these hardships that
our people are suffering. And what for, to push themselves to power in
the coming 2016 presidential elections, at our expense,” he added.
Binay vowed to fight the “attacks” against him as he continues with
his work of “providing homes for the homeless and a voice to millions of
Filipinos working overseas.”
“I have served the Filipino, particularly the poor and
underprivileged, all my life and my track record bears me out. And
this, the Senate circus, can never erase. Because our people ask only
one question of those who try to crucify us: ‘What have you done for the
Filipino people?” he said.
Binay also hit the “selective justice” and perceived biases against
the opposition during a convention of public attorneys at the Manila
Hotel Tuesday last week.
In the same event, Binay also assailed the Aquino administration for
the “unfair” treatment Arroyo has been getting as well as the creation
of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), some key acts of which
were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
As this developed, President Aquino reiterated yesterday that it was
the Vice President who initiated their meeting last week in Bahay
Pangarap.
Aquino said the facts of his meeting with Binay were reversed by the Vice President’s spokesman, Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla.
“It was the Vice President who actually initiated the meeting. He
texted me, he asked if he could see me and I said yes, I readily
agreed,” Aquino said at the annual presidential forum with the Foreign
Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) yesterday.
He said there was no meeting in Malacanang but in his official
residence in Bahay Pangarap at around 9 p.m. last week. He said the
meeting lasted until about midnight.
The President said it was the Vice President who asked for advice on the issues hounding his family.
“With all due respect to the spokesperson, I think he had it in
reverse,” Aquino said, noting that he did not ask about the Binay family
and he did not initiate offering the Vice President any help on the
Senate inquiry of the Makati City Hall Building II.
“He (Binay) stated the fact that Dra. (Elenita) Binay was hurting
from all of these. I didn’t ask – he volunteered the information,”
Aquino said.
“The Vice President was asking advice for instance on what to do. So I
didn’t offer to help, he asked advice on how to handle the situation,
amongst other things,” he said.
“He was saying if it was possible for the Senate to terminate their
inquiry in aid of legislation given the fact that the proper forum would
be the Ombudsman’s office and I said, we’ll inquire from the Senate
President,” Aquino recalled.
President Aquino said that he and Vice President Binay remain friends despite being in different political parties.
