Senator Nancy Binay walked out of a Senate committee inquiry on the new Senate building’s funding after a heated exchange with Senator Alan Cayetano.
The inquiry, initiated by Cayetano after Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero called for a cost review, focused on the project’s budget, which Cayetano claimed had reached P23 billion.
Binay who served as former panel chair, disputed this figure. She said it was only P21 billion.
“Do your math. P21 billion is not P23 billion. Mr. Chairman, is P21 billion the same as P23 billion?” Binay argued.
Cayetano contended that the cost included P1.6 billion for land acquisition, totaling P23 billion. The argument escalated when Binay criticized Cayetano for demanding an apology from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) over their records.
Cayetano also accused Binay of disrupting the hearing and insinuated she was manipulating media questions to highlight the ongoing Makati-Taguig feud, reflecting their families’ long-standing political rivalry.
“What is your intention in disrupting our hearing? You have invented so many things in your media interviews. You’ve had 10 interviews already; this might be the Makati-Taguig issue. You didn’t even bother to change the questions from the radio interview. They’re exactly the same. So it’s obvious that you fed the questions,” Cayetano said.
“The DPWH has been meaning to provide explanations, but they’ve been unable to do this properly… I’m not making a mess in the hearing, Mr. Chairman. It was already a mess when I arrived,” she said.
When Binay asked the DPWH if their documents showed P23 billion for the Senate building, DPWH Undersecretary Emil Sadain responded, “There is none.”
Following this, Binay told Cayetano, “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I made my point. There’s no such thing as P23 billion in the DPWH documents. Thank you, Mr. Chair,” and left the hearing.
