Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — It’s been a year since the Senate probe of alleged anomalies involving Vice President Jejomar Binay began and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is posed to come up with another expose on Thursday, August 20 — the 23rd hearing on the matter .
Trillanes said on Wednesday (August 19) that he had documentary evidence to back up the issue of “ghost senior citizens” in Makati City.
He said these were people who were either not eligible to be recipients or dead — but were still receiving benefits like birthday cakes, cash assistance, medicine and more.
Trillanes said the senators would have to backtrack through the records to find out when the illegal practice began.
The lawmaker, however, said he would like to believe the wrongdoing wasn’t the brainchild of Binay’s son — Mayor Jejomar “Junjun” Binay Jr.
“Si Mayor Junjun Binay ay basically sunod-sunuran sa kanyang ama. Ang imbentor ng pakana ng lahat ng ito ay syempre yung tatay,” Trillanes said.
[Translation: “Mayor Binay basically just followed his father’s orders. The one who started it all was, of course, the father.”]
Trillanes also added that, based on their reckoning, about P100 million annually was stolen from the city coffers due to the alleged anomalies under Senate investigation.
He said that so far, he believed the hearings had achieved their purpose — which was to unearth different anomalies in one local government unit.
He added that another hearing would be held on August 26 and another in September.
CNN Philippines’ Anna Estanislao contributed to this report.
