Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Vice President Jejomar turned the tables on Friday (September 11) against those accusing his camp of black propaganda by saying he’s the one who’s expecting more demolition jobs as the election period drew near.
This developed after fake P500 bills bearing the face of his rival presidentiable — Manuel “Mar” Roxas II — were distributed to reporters the day before.
Binay said he believed it was Roxas’s camp which actually distributed the phoney money so that it could eventually be pinned on the opposition.
“Yon ay ginagawa nila para ituro sa akin,” he said.
[Tanslation: “They are doing that so they can point a finger at me.”]
He maintained his camp had nothing to do with the phoney money — even if the bogus bills bore a message similar to his campaign pitch: “Take the money, but vote for your chosen candidate.”
In his previous sorties in Mindanao last month, Binay told residents that when offered money, voters should accept the money but vote according to their conscience — after all, he pointed out, the money likely came from public funds.
He explained that he had been telling voters the same thing since he was running for mayor — recalling that his opponent that time bragged about the ability to buy votes.
The vice president added that he feared that such practice might happen again for the 2016 elections.
For his part, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) spokesman Mon Ilagan said the opposition had no capability to manufacture the spoofed bills.
Ilagan countered that UNA didn’t need to resort to “cheap gimmickry” because the administration party’s enemy would be itself — which he accused of “ineptness, callousness and insensitivity.”
CNN Philippines’ Joyce Ilas contributed to this report.
