Several hours before Vice President Jejomar C. Binay went on national TV on Wednesday, to confirm his Cabinet resignation and make his first public statement against President B. S. Aquino 3rd, a CEO close to PNoy told me that Malacañang and the ruling Liberal Party were having a serious “rethink” on Binay after his resignation on Monday. They apparently anticipated Binay’s TV address and decided not to engage--“stand down” as Pnoy famously put it on January 25, 2015 to the military reinforcement units at Mamasapano.
Malacañang’s original plan was to force Binay to abandon his presidential bid by sending him, or his wife (the former mayor of Makati, Dr. Elenita Binay), or his son (the current mayor of MakatI, Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr.), or all of them at once to jail on some non-bailable criminal charges, or by pushing him out of office so that PNoy could name a new Vice President in his place, who could take over as President should he decide to seek political shelter in Johor or elsewhere while the government remains in friendly hands.
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