Political full court press up against Vice President Jejomar Binay

Vice president Jejomar Binay is besieged..politically. He is now being attacked on all corners. His former political friends now his embittered foes are launching bombs almost every day.

At his left are his former political associates—people whom he used to entrench himself to power. At his right are close personal associates, like President Benigno S. Aquino III, who have distanced themselves from him due to his involvement in the current controversy behind that billion peso government building.

It seems that the strategy is to isolate Binay from his closest supporters who belong to the middle class. Their wrecking campaign may have achieved little in demolishing his stature as the frontrunner in the presidential surveys, yet, it is causing serious trouble with his support from the middle forces and with the business community.

For Binay to win, he needs logistical support from his political base. Normally , this comes from contributions from the business community.

Seems like these attacks are trained at isolating Binay from his potential and present financiers and make him weak and unable to move and campaign.

Binay’s communications team may have assessed this strategy in the wrong way. They think that this campaign aims to drag Binay down in the surveys. They think that these attacks are aimed at his strong mass base of voters.

Wrong. Admittedly, Binay has his solid supporters from the mass of voters. These attacks are being articulated for those among the middle forces, or voters from the middle class and for the business community, for businessmen to form a strong aversion against him, for being corrupt.

Corruption is a big election-related issue for businessmen and for reformist-minded voters among the middle class. They have the money. They have the network and financial strength to push or pull a presidential candidacy down.

This is the core strategy which Pnoy used last 2010.  Most of those who campaigned actively for him were members of civil society and SMEs. They were not just active campaigners but influential voter-getters who convinced many of their workers to vote for Pnoy.

However, given the very shallow bench of aspirants for the presidency in 2016, with even the likes of Miriam Defensor-Santiago now being considered as a contender, Binay is expected to remain a top choice because no one among those being considered equal him in anyway.

Now these attacks could move either way—it may propel Binay to the top or it may actually drag him to the pits like how former Senator Manny Villar experienced when he threw his hat unto the presidential ring in 2010.

The clitcher in this teledrama being parlayed by Binay’s attackers before the media is not about Binay’s version of a burloloy building, but the eventual effect of such an involvement in an alleged corruption---his bloated bank accounts.

The next episode seems to be questions about how he got so wealthy in such a period of time when Binay is not a businessman like Villar.

Binay himself said that he came from the lowest rungs of society. He was just a human rights lawyer when he began his political career as a mayor. As a lawyer, Binay did not have any note-worthy client to speak of. How then did he amass so much wealth?