{"id":52523,"date":"2015-06-22T16:57:50","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T08:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=52523"},"modified":"2015-06-22T16:57:50","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T08:57:50","slug":"belmonte-binay-cant-brush-aside-charges-as-dirty-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/06\/22\/belmonte-binay-cant-brush-aside-charges-as-dirty-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Belmonte: Binay can\u2019t \u2018brush aside\u2019 charges as dirty politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Speaker<\/a>
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (Facebook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 With corruption allegations hurled against him, Vice President Jejomar Binay repeatedly dismissed such charges and regarded them as a \u2018demolition job\u2019 against him by his \u2018detractors\u2019 because he had expressed interest in running for president in next year\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., who was also Liberal Party\u2019s (LP) vice chairman, however, warned Binay not to take such allegations lightly as these were verifiable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charges against Jojo (Binay) are formidable and provable. He should not brush them aside as dirty politics,\u201d Belmonte said in a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.<\/p>\n

Belmonte pointed out that Binay\u2019s ratings had dropped in the two most recent presidential preferences surveys, landing second after Senator Grace Poe.<\/p>\n

Both polls were conducted while the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee probed on Binay\u2019s alleged kickbacks in city projects, including that of the overpriced Makati City Hall Building II and the controversial Makati Science High School building, among others.<\/p>\n

Binay was the former Makati City mayor prior being elected as the Philippines\u2019 Vice President.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolls are not static. They change from time to time. What is important is the trend and how to sustain or reverse them,\u201d Belmonte said, reminding Binay to monitor the surveys.<\/p>\n

Belmonte believed, however, that Poe would continue dominating the polls until presidential candidates file their candidacies later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrace will be everybody\u2019s target,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Caloocan Representative Edgar Erice, for his part, agreed with Belmonte and expected Poe\u2019s rise in the surveys as she has become the \u2018darling of the press.\u2019 He also reiterated, however, that the poll results were capricious.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers reveal that everything is volatile. One valid issue may cause a dip. People are answering based on their heart\u2019s sentiments. But when the elections come near, they will use their minds,\u201d Erice said.<\/p>\n

Conversely, he acknowledged that Binay may be \u2018doomed\u2019 with his current standing in the polls.<\/p>\n

With regards to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Belmonte deemed that the mayor\u2019s vow to kill all criminals was not something the country needed from its next president.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Digong (Duterte) serious? Is that the way to run a country?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, continued to climb up the presidential preferences surveys, securing him a third spot after Poe and Binay.<\/p>\n

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, on the other hand, was \u2018moving up,\u2019 placing fourth in the said polls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 With corruption allegations hurled against him, Vice President Jejomar Binay repeatedly dismissed such charges and regarded them as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":52524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95,483],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","category-politics","mauthors-cyra-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52523","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}