Close to 100 people invited in Senate probe of Binay

By: Maila Ager - 10 years ago

Parking Area of the Makati City Hall Building II.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Nearly 100 resource persons , including the alleged dummies of Vice President Jejomar Binay, were invited at the resumption of the Senate investigation into the controversial Makati City Hall 2 parking building on Thursday.

Copies of the guests list furnished to reporters this Wednesday showed a total of 79 people invited in the ongoing hearing of the blue ribbon subcommittee, including the Vice President, who already declined the body’s invitation last week.

Binay’s son and namesake, Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay, and certain officials of the Makati City Hall were also absent last week but the sub-committee issued another subpoena for them. Their names were again included on the long list of guests for Thursday.

Aside from the key personalities, who had already appeared in previous hearings of the sub-committee, some names earlier mentioned as alleged dummies of the Vice President like Gerardo Limlingan and Erlinda Chong, directors of Meriras Realty and Development Corporation, were also listed as resource persons.

During last week’s hearing, former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado alleged that the Vice President had used certain personalities and corporations to hide his wealth.

The Vice President’s camp strongly denied the allegation and any irregularities in the construction of the parking building, which was constructed when he was still the city mayor.