MANILA, Philippines - Vice President
Jejomar Binay is planning to attend Thursday's Senate Blue Ribbon Committee
hearing on the corruption allegations leveled against him, his ally said on
Tuesday.
Speaking to ANC's Headstart, Navotas
Rep. Toby Tiangco said Binay wants to appear at the Senate and answer the
accusations that he pocketed kickbacks from various government projects in
Makati.
"As of last night, he is going.
But I am still trying to convince him [not to attend the Senate hearing],"
said Tiangco, interim-president of Binay's United Nationalist Alliance
political party.
"Kagabi, sabi niya, pabayaan niyo
na akong pumunta," he added.
Tiangco said he will still try to
persuade Binay to snub the hearing.
"Kung hindi namin makukumbinsi
hanggang bukas nang gabi, then, anong magagawa namin?" Tiangco said.
The opposition lawmaker also maintained
that Binay is not backing out of a proposed debate with Sen. Antonio Trillanes
IV.
Tiangco, however, does not want the
debate to push through, believing that Binay has nothing to gain from it.
Binay is being investigated in
connection with the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall II parking building
and his purported 350-hectare property in Rosario town, Batangas.
His camp reportedly said that he will
only attend the Senate hearings if he is invited by the Blue Ribbon mother
committee, not the sub-committee currently conducting the inquiry.
The committee issued a formal
invitation to Binay last week with an assurance that it will "extend
courtesies befitting the Office of the Vice President."
Binay has criticized the sub-committee
probe for supposedly masquerading as in aid of legislation, saying it is only aimed
at derailing his presidential bid.
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