{"id":28618,"date":"2014-10-11T15:22:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-11T07:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=28618"},"modified":"2014-10-11T18:26:29","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T10:26:29","slug":"binay-is-impeachable-santiago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/11\/binay-is-impeachable-santiago\/","title":{"rendered":"Binay is impeachable \u2013 Santiago"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Miriam<\/a>
Miriam Defensor-Santiago \/ Wikipedia Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said on Friday that Vice President Jejomar Binay is impeachable for betraying public trust because of his refusal to answer the corruption allegations raised against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetrayal of public trust; it\u2019s broad enough to cover anything,\u201d Santiago said when asked if the Senate inquiry into the allegedly overpriced P2.28-billion Makati car park had pointed to an impeachable offense by the Vice President.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean you\u2019re the Vice President. People look up to you. In case the President dies, they expect you would have the same competence and efficiency, and therefore the same level of service to the people,\u201d Santiago told reporters.<\/p>\n

Santiago also slammed Binay for not attending the Senate inquiry where he was accused of taking kickbacks from the construction of the Makati City car park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Vice President said he\u2019d skip the hearing because the charges are not truthful. Is that the attitude of a person [who] has been maligned? If you\u2019ve been maligned, don\u2019t you want to punch the other person? \u2026 Why doesn\u2019t he want to appear there? What is his reason?\u201d she said in her speech before the Philippine Association of Real Estate Boards Inc. at the Bellevue Hotel in Alabang.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you say, \u2018I won\u2019t answer the charges.\u2019 What conclusion do you expect the public to make? If you want to be a public official, then subject yourself to all the trials and tribulations of being a public officer. Because a public official should not be thick-skinned,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

She added that it is now Binay\u2019s turn to prove his innocence by presenting his own \u201ccounter-evidence,\u201d so that the \u201cburden of evidence is carried out by both sides, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The) normal reaction of an innocent person (is that) he tears at his hair, he drives himself through the roof, he shouts to high heavens for justice, and then presents his evidence,\u201d the senator said.<\/p>\n

Santiago however doubted that an impeachment case against Binay is possible given the time left for the next year\u2019s presidential election.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like a physical improbability. You have to go through a sort of a preliminary investigation (by) the House of Representatives\u2026 Then they file what is in effect a complaint with the judge (that) is the collective Senate. All of that will take a lot of time, particularly since lawyers are very, very addicted to delay,\u201d Santiago said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said on Friday that Vice President Jejomar Binay is impeachable for betraying public trust because …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":13540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[6362],"class_list":["post-28618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","tag-sen-miriam-defensor-santiago","mauthors-lei-fontamillas","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}