Jejomar “Jojo” Cabauatan Binay, Sr. is the current and 15th Vice President of the Philippines under President Benigno S. Aquino III and one of the presidential candidates for 2016 election. He is the president of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines and a member of United Nationalist Alliance (UNA). He was born on November 11, 1942 in Paco, Manila and the only child of Diego Binay of Batangas and Lourdes Cabauatan of Isabela. He was orphaned at a young age. He is married to Elenita Sombillo, a doctor of medicine and former mayor in Makati from 1998-2001. They have five children, namely, Maria Lourdes Nancy, Mar-Len Abigail (2nd District of Makati representative), Jejomar Erwin (former Makati City mayor) Marita Angeline and Joanna Marie Blanca.
Vice President Binay studied at the Philippine Normal College Training Department in his elementary. He took and finished high school at the University of the Philippines Preparatory High School. He spent his college years in the University of the Philippines and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Bachelor of Laws. While in law school, Binay worked as a claims examiner in Insular Life Assurance Company.
Binay took the bar exams in 1968 and after passing it, he furthered his studies in Public Administration in the University of the Philippines and Law in University of Santo Tomas.
He also took up graduate studies at the National Defense College of the Philippines, the Command and General Staff College, the Center for Research and Communication (now known as the University of Asia and the Pacific), the Joint Services Command Staff College, and the University of the Philippines School of Urban and Regional Planning. He was also a senior executive fellow of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
In 1988, Binay was formally elected mayor of Makati City, and was reelected in 1992 and 1995. In 1987, he was appointed governor of Metro Manila and later elected as chairman of Metro Manila Development Authority. Upon his appointment, he took daring yet sensible moves to put the financial affairs of the city in order including purging the payroll of 3,000 ghost employees to save 2.4 million pesos a month, and canceling contracts found disadvantageous to the local government.
As a mayor, he prioritized quality education for the residents of Makati. Public schools in this city are among the best public schools in the Philippines in terms of facilities and quality of instruction. Student’s books, school materials and uniforms in public schools are also subsidized by the local government. By 1987, the private sector and the resident’s payed taxes in record numbers which was taken by the local government as a sign of confidence in the administration of Binay.
A local government health card, called the “yellow card”, was issued by Binay to the Makati residents which covers a certain amount of hospitalization costs. He was also the first official to provide free movie tickets to senior citizens covering the cost when they watch movies at Makati malls.
With the conversion of Makati as an urban city under his term, Binay, under the virtue of R.A. 7845 became the first Chief Executive of the City Government of Makati in 1995.
He took a three-year break from local politics and served as the Chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority, more popularly known as MMDA and he was also appointed as vice-chairman of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission and Traffic Czar for Metro Manila.
In 2001, he was re-elected as mayor of the city of Makati. He also received the overwhelming majority of votes in the 2004 elections which put him as mayor of Makati again.
In 2006, Binay placed 4th in the Top 10 Mayors of the World by an on-line poll organized by Worldmayor.com
As one of the candidates for presidency in the 2016 elections, Vice President Binay espouses a platform focused on the country’s economy. Here are some of his proposals:
- establish more effective monitoring and supervision of priority programs and projects
- amendments in the 1987 constitution, especially the economic provisions
- passage of the Fiscal Incentives Rationalization Act and Right-Of-Way Act
- amendments in the Build-Operate-Transfer Law
- creation of the Department of Information Technology
- reducing personal and income taxes
- strengthen mining, agriculture and manufacturing industries
- accelerate infrastructure development
- respect the sanctity of contracts
- lowering of income and corporate taxes
- revisit the taxation system.
Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jejomar_Binay
http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Jejomar_C._Binay
(written by Jasmin Monte, edited by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Lovely Ann Cruz)