Why the haste against Binay and Co.?
FROM sartorial propriety to local autonomy, the issues emerging from the “standoff” between the national government (through the Department of Interior and Local Government, or DILG) and the Makati City government are gathering steam.
The latest news is that Makati’s traffic enforcers, whom suspended Mayor Jejomar Binay has baptized as his “Yellow Army,” are massing up in front of the Makati City Hall to prevent “anyone” from storming the building to forcibly evict Binay, who has refused to vacate his office despite the suspension order imposed on him, his vice mayor and the entire city council.
Already, various opposition figures, including former President Cory Aquino and Susan Roces-Poe have dropped by the site of the standoff, lending their faces and names in support of the embattled mayor, even as hundreds of his “masa” supporters have been camped out in front of the building. There is even talk that Vice President Noli de Castro may declare his support for Binay and Company soon, given the shaky ground upon which Malacañang’s action stands, and the adverse reaction from the public.
Based on a complaint of former Makati councilor (and perennial losing mayoralty candidate) Bobby Brillantes, the DILG acted with what seemed like undue haste in ordering the preventive suspension not just of Binay and Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, but also all the 16 councilors, thereby crippling the city government.
Miriam Go, in an article in Newsbreak magazine, says the action of the DILG “was an unprecedented redefining of the relationship between the national and local governments that the [Local Government] Code spells out — regardless of the merits of the charges hurled against the controversial mayor.”
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“ORDERING all the elective seats in a city vacated is a first in the country’s post-Marcos history,” notes Go. “It rendered useless the chapter on succession in the Code. DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno himself acknowledged in a press release that the Code is silent on how to fill the vacancies in Makati.”
For now, DILG National Capital Region director Rodolfo Feraren has been appointed OIC for Makati, though he has so far done nothing more momentous than to meet with the department heads of the city government to ensure that services to the people of Makati continue to be rendered. Still, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, for the DILG action is clearly a violation of the Makati voters’ right to be served by men and women they elected to office.
Whether all the elective officials of Makati are indeed guilty of hiring “ghost employees” has yet to be investigated, while the suspension has been brought before the Court of Appeals, where a petition for a temporary restraining order against the DILG is pending.
But according to Newsbreak, Malacañang may have acted “too swiftly” on the Binay case, issuing the suspension order even before “the issues were joined,” that is, before the accused had the chance to counter the charges. While Binay and the city council had a chance to submit their reply last September, hearings have yet to be held.
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GO quotes sources as saying that the haste with which Malacañang has moved against Binay was prompted by the need to move preemptively against the popular mayor, early enough to cripple his ability to raise funds for the opposition in next year’s elections.
“Several sources . [say] that President Arroyo’s camp wants to get rid of Binay because he has not only been hosting the oust-Arroyo rallies in his jurisdiction, he even funds them. The mayor is suspected, too, of contributing money to coup plotters, or at least keeping some of them in custody.”
Even the President’s advisers are said to acknowledge Binay’s “invincibility” in Makati’s electoral contest, and their assessment was that “the only way to weaken Binay’s machinery is to keep his hands off the city government’s huge resources before the campaign period.”
It should be noted that Makati is the richest city in the country in terms of revenue collections, reportedly registering an average of P3 billion in surpluses annually since 2001.
Tags: Jejomar Binay, Noli De Castro, ronaldo puno, vice president
