General Admission
Binay boo-boo will be forgotten in 2016
By Al S. Mendoza
THAT 2016 is still a good two years away is the only redeeming factor in the recent Binay boo-boo.
You know how forgetful we are historically.
Was Erap not convicted of plunder and yet, he finished second behind winner Noynoy Aquino in the 2010 presidential election?
How easily we forget.
Was Erap not pardoned by GMA after getting convicted for life by the Sandiganbayan and yet, he won as mayor of Manila in the May 13 polls?
How easily we forget.
Two years from now, who would remember the Binaygate?
Junjun Binay, the mayor of Makati, called police to lift the bar of a gate at plush Dasmarinas Village in Makati City.
Binay did that when the four guards manning the gate refused to let through Binay’s convoy of four cars.
Village rules say the gate is to be closed at 10 p.m. everyday.
Anyone, not even the President of the Philippines, can not exit from Dasmarinas using that gate.
Binay was with his senator-sister, Nancy, when the guards refused the entourage to pass through. It was way past 10 p.m. already.
The guards were merely enforcing rules assigned them by village officials.
For doing so, the Makati police, after letting Binay’s group to break the rule, took the four guards to the police station “for questioning.”
After the “questioning,” the guards were said to have apologized to Binay’s group for their “unwarranted action.”
In this country, you are at fault when you enforce a rule against people with power such as the Binays.
The Binay dynasty in Makati is composed of the father as the country’s vice president and his three children as city mayor, senator and representative.
Jojo Binay has been an unbeaten mayor of Makati before he ran as vice president, scoring a stirring upset of Mar Roxas in 2010.
Strongly perceived as a strong presidential bet in 2016, Jojo Binay became a collateral damage to what his son Junjun did on Nov. 30 at Dasmarinas Village.
Junjun displayed a shameless act unworthy of a Binay, forever tarnishing the image of his father whose humility has consistently placed him atop surveys and ratings that sometimes overshadow that of the President’s own approval marks.
It was a blatant show of force, an abuse of power, and I’m almost pretty sure Binay’s 2016 foes have already started devising ways to use Junjun’s indiscretion as political cannon fodder against Jojo two years from now.
But time is on Jojo Binay’s side. By the time the presidential campaign is on, little will be remembered of the Binaygate.
We are a people not known to remember the past.
We are a people known to live in the present, to be current.
It will take a stroke of genius for one to be able to exploit the Binaygate and transform it into a crushing blow against Jojo Binay’s presidential ambitions in 2016.
That will be the day.
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
