For Vice President Jejomar Binay, the declaration of Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th that he may join the 2016 presidential derby confirmed what Binay has been suspecting all along: Trillanes’ efforts to vilify him is politically motivated.
“Mr. Trillanes has just made my day. He had said that, no, it’s not politically motivated. There he is now declaring that he, like [Sen. Alan Peter] Cayetano, are candidates in the future?” Binay told reporters in Iligan City.
The Vice President, who is in Iligan to follow up the house projects in Barangay Hinaplon, called presidential contenders who are reluctant to announce their intentions as hypocrites.
“You’re asking me. ‘Why did you announce already that you’ll be a candidate the day after the election in 2010?’ Because I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I am really planning to run. The others [contenders] have been saying until now, ‘I’m not running.’ That’s hypocrisy,” he said.
Binay reiterated that the campaign to besmirch him and his family is part of a grand design to dislodge as a frontrunner for 2016.
Pressed to comment on his continued refusal to attend the Senate blue ribbon sub-committee inquiry into allegations of corruption leveled against him, Binay recalled how resource persons were humiliated at the proceedings.
“The only thing they know is to shout at you, shame you, threaten you. I will not stand for it,” he said.
On Thursday, the Vice President said he is bracing for more attacks that he believes will continue well into the campaign period for the 2016 elections.
Binay said he expects his detractors to intensify their campaign to smear his image as the election nears.