Cayetano vs Binay: Reconciliation talks eyed

MANILA, Philippines — Senate majority leader Francis Tolentino said the ethics committee which he heads will first sit down with Senators Nancy Binay and Alan Peter Cayetano and try to reconcile the two following Binay’s ethics complaint against Cayetano.

At a press briefing yesterday, Tolentino said the ethics committee will determine if the complaint filed by Binay against Cayetano is sufficient in form and substance.

But his committee will have to meet to organize its members and sit down with the two quarreling political rivals when hot heads have cooled.

Tolentino said he agreed with Senate President Francis Escudero, who said in an interview yesterday that the two should calm down and be reconciled.

He said their issues about the New Senate Building, which became personal attacks against each other, should be discussed in private instead of in a public hearing.

“While these are matters of public interest, it is better if we sit down and talk about it behind closed doors,” Tolentino said.

Binay slapped Cayetano with an ethics complaint after the male senator called her a crazy female rumormonger (“Marites”) for allegedly backstabbing him for his wrong figures about the ballooning cost of construction.

Cayetano stood by his disparaging remarks and said Binay was diverting from the real issue at hand in her ethics complaint.

Cayetano’s accounts committee will hold its second hearing today on the cost of the construction pegged at over P23 billion.