Mayor Binay grilled at Senate, refutes overpricing allegation

Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin Junjun Binay yesterday refuted allegations of overpricing in the construction of a building in the financial district, saying it is no ordinary car park but a world-class edifice.

Mayor Binay issued the statement before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee which is conducting an investigation into the alleged overpriced Makati City Hall Building 2.

On the basis of these allegations, the mayor and his father, Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, were the subject of plunder and graft complaints filed before the Office of the Ombudsman. Both have denied the accusations.

At the hearing, the Makati mayor rejected perceptions the building was a mere parking building, saying its a world-class office building.

Yan po ang Makati City Hall Building 2, hindi po parking building, kundi isang office building. Para sa amin, hindi pwede and pwede lang. Ang ginawa po namin ay isang world-class building na pinakikinabangan ng mga taong gagamit nito, mga empleyado namin at ang libu-libong residente at kliyente ng Makati (That Makati City Hall Building 2 is not a parking building but an office building. For us, we dont want something mediocre. What we constructed is a world-class building that can benefit any people, our employees, and the thousands of residents and clients of Makati), Binay said.

Gusto namin ipakita na kaya ng Makati na maging (We want to show that Makati is capable of being) globally competitive, the mayor added.

Mayor Binay said their accusers Renato Bondal and Nicholas Enciso VI, both from the Bondal Law Office based their allegations of overpricing based on the data from the National Statistics Office (NSO).

But Mr. Chairman, the NSO is not the final arbiter on overpricing, this has been established by jurisprudence, the mayor said.

Binay also said that to prove overpricing, an actual canvass of similar items is needed. This was the ruling of the Supreme Court in the cases of the Commission on Audit (COA) versus Arriola and National Mental Health Center vs COA. He also said COAs guidelines are very clear.

When it was Bondals turn to speak, he told senators that the Binays made P2 billion from the construction of the parking building, saying the edifice was overpriced by as much as three times the average industry price per square meter for building construction. He, however, failed to substantiate how the Binays made P2 billion.

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Mayor Binay grilled at Senate, refutes overpricing allegation