Spokesman says no truth to text messages of Binay quitting

Vice President Jejomar Binay. Photo courtesy of Jojo Binay on Facebook.

MANILA – Text messages recently flew back and forth across cyberspace with rumours that Vice-President Jejomar Binay will be holding a press conference to announce his resignation from the Aquino Cabinet.

Joey Salgado, Binay’s spokesman, confirmed that the text messages are indeed a hoax, and nothing more.

Prior to the text message-hoax running rampant, Binay had expressed his support for President Aquino, in the midst of cries for the impeachment of the latter with regard to the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) controversy.

The rumours may have been fueled by Binay’s refusal to clap when Aquino announced that he rejected Budget Secretary Butch.Abad’s resignation on the heels of the Supreme Court ‘s decision that sections of the DAP are unconstitutional.

Binay in fact expressed his support for the President’s decision to reject Abad’s resignation.

“The President has made a decision and I respect his decision. The decision to accept or reject the resignation is the prerogative of the President,” he said.

United Nationalist Alliance secretary-general and Binay-ally, Toby Tiangco said that he has not yet talked to the Vice-President about his refusal to clap; but he is sure that “gusto niya (Binay) ng transparency.”

Meanwhile, Binay has requested for an independent audit of projects under the DAP, as well as for full disclosure of the matter; pointing out that the SC made a clear decision concerning the necessity of accountability.

“But where do we start? For me, a good starting point would be to make available to the public all the projects funded by DAP. This is after all, consistent with the tenets of full transparency that is the cornerstone of the Aquino administration, and I do hope my colleagues will reconsider a reported decision to withhold the release of the so-called DAP list,” he said.