VICE President Jejomar Binay found himself in the middle of a political drama at Malacañang on Friday after President Benigno Aquino III made use of a Cabinet meeting to announce and reject the resignation of Budget Secretary Florencio Abad. Palace reporters observed that Cabinet meetings are ordinarily open only for photo and video opportunities, but yesterday’s Cabinet deliberation on the budget was aired live on government media up until Aquino announced and rejected Abad’s resignation. And even though Binay was seated across Aquino and between Abad and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, he missed the cue of all Cabinet members and failed to clap after the President announced that he was rejecting Abad’s resignation. Binay, however, quickly recovered and issued an emailed press statement while the Cabinet meeting was ongoing: “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.” But Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, secretary general of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance, said he was not entertained by the supposed publicity stunt. “Bad script, bad acting, and bad faith,” Tiangco said. Tiangco said Malacañang should take some drama workshops and its “resignation script” only unveiled Malacañang’s attempt to protect its allies and cover up for the ourlawed Disbursement Acceleration Program. “I believe it’s a matter of ‘I’ll-cover-your-back-you-cover-mine kind of arrangement’,” Tiangco said. Tiangco said the President is obviously protecting himself by shielding Abad because “Malacanang already absolved Abad from any wrongdoing in DAP, and by protecting Abad, the Palace is also protecting the interest of the President.” “Today is a day of hellish lows. It may not be a bad day for Abad, but definitely a bad day for good governance—a bad day for the country,” UNA secretary general and Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco said. Tiangco, at the same time, slammed the Aquino government for its supposed disrespect for the Supreme Court’s decision by absolving Abad of any culpability and by openly harboring the architect of the P170-billion DAP fund. “The President is duty bound to uphold and defend the Constitution. By rejecting Abad’s resignation and by harboring a ‘Constitution offender’, the President’s act is a direct insult to the Supreme Court as an institution that already declared Abad’s impounding mechanism as unlawful and unconstitutional,” he stressed. manilastandardtoday/2014/07/12/binay-misses-cue-in-a-bad-script-/#.U8BvaCcOtnk.twitter
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 04:21:56 +0000
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