Sometimes it’s quite challenging to break the ice when you are talking to a politician, but with Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay, her being so candid makes her so relatable you don’t have to struggle to start a conversation with her. And if you had a no-holds-barred discussion with Abby, it’s impossible for you not to notice her strong yet charming personality.
In a casual brunch with the showbiz press in a restaurant in Quezon City, the Makati leader arrived on time and started to great everyone in the room.
“I rarely come here in Quezon City because I’m allergic to traffic,” the incumbent Makati City mayor started, “But I can hardly say no to Manay Lolit(Solis) when she invites me for lunch. She’s my favorite. I can’t thank her enough for the support she’s been giving me since 2007.”
“And Ricky Lo also my favorite. May kami nyan,” said in jest, “And all the members of the showbiz press because of the support they’ve been giving me since I ran for Congress.”
Even before the host of the lunch could formally introduce the people invited to the intimate event, members of the entertainment press had already started bombarding the mayor with questions regarding her rivalry with her brother Junjun, who is running against her for Makati’s mayoral post in the 2019 elections.
“The situation is really difficult, whether you’re running against your brother, your cousin or any relatives, because it involves emotions. At alam mong pagkatapos ngelections hindi yun dun natatapos. This is not an ordinary rivalry and you cannot cut ties with someone you are related to,” she stated.
She further said that she’s civil with her brother, “civil in the sense that we don’t communicate because there’s this tendency that we end up saying things that we’ll regret.”
But more than the “Battle of the Binays,” Abby wanted to talk about her journey before becoming a public servant. At first, she was even reluctant to discuss the issue between her and Monsour del Rosario who is apparently now choosing the side of her brother.
“We had a falling-out this year. He wasn’t working at all. He was focused more on Taekwondo and his position in the sports commission. The Makati residents don’t feel his presence. For two years, wala siyang ginagawa. We talked last January. That was the time when we broke up,” she said while laughing.
Abby was frank with her answers to the questions thrown to her by the showbiz press and while some people are still wondering how she and her brother end up battling over the mayoral post in Makati, she only had this to say, “He only had two options: first was to run and the second was not to run.”
(N. Wang, MS)
