VP Binay remains focused amid overpriced Makati building allegation – spokesman

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

MANILA  – Vice President Jejomar Binay will remain focused on his work assisting the families of slain soldiers, calamity victims and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in distress amid Senate inquiry into alleged overpriced Makati City Hall 2 building.

”The Vice President remains focused and committed to his work,” Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla, spokesman for political concerns of Binay, said in a press statement.

Remulla, meanwhile, said the Senate blue ribbon sub-committee should explain why the representative of the Philippine Contractors Association (PCA) was not allowed to speak during Monday’s ocular inspection of the controversial building.

Remulla said the PCA representatives should have contradicted the biased assessments of so-called experts brought in by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

He said the so-called expert witnesses gave biased assessments that still did not prove the claim of overpricing.

“We have the right process being followed to validate if the expenses was correct or not. Even the PCA representative said the correct process is to compare the as-built plans. What’s more, the issue is not whether the materials used were standard or not, but whether they were overpriced. This is something that they still have not proven,” he added.

While senators were conducting an ocular inspection Monday, Remulla said the Vice President led the inauguration of a housing community for residents of Cagayan de Oro City affected by typhoon Sendong two years ago.

Last Sunday, Vice President Binay awarded cash benefits to 20 family-beneficiaries of soldiers killed in combat in Camp Evangelista, Cagayan de Oro City.

As co-chairman of the Alay Sa Kawal Foundation (ASK), the Vice President extended P30,000 financial assistance to the families of soldiers mostly belonging to the Philippine Army 4th Infantry Division based in the said camp.

Binay is expected to meet on Tuesday an OFW who was allegedly raped in the Middle East to find out what assistance the government can provide, he added.

Remulla described as “hula-hula (guesswork) experts” or experts in guesswork the resource persons who made their assessment after a cursory inspection of the building.

“Without even seeing the as-built plans, blueprints, bill of materials, or mechanical and electrical plans, these so-called experts made a conclusion which can only be described as guesswork or hula-hula,” Remulla said.