MANILA, Philippines–Vice President Jejomar Binay told a journalist in an interview in 2010 that he owned a farm and piggery in Batangas province, and that he had bought the property for P30 per square meter.
Journalist Raissa Robles submitted to the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee investigating alleged anomalies in Makati City the audio recordings of her interview with Binay conducted at his Makati City home as well as photos she had taken at that time.
Robles said the interview was on the record, and she had openly taken the photos.
In the interview, Robles asked Binay how many houses he owned. He eventually said he had houses in Makati and Batangas province.
He also answered in the affirmative when asked if it was 10 hectares. He said he had a piggery there.
When Robles asked if he inherited it, he said he bought it for P30 per square meter.
Binay also said in the Robles interview that his fighting cocks came from the United States and Australia.
Binay’s former ally, former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, has alleged that the Vice President owns a 350-hectare estate in Rosario, Batangas.
The estate has a rest house with a swimming pool, a maze garden, an aviary, a man-made lagoon and a cock breeding farm.
Binay’s camp has denied he owns the estate, and businessman Antonio Tiu said he is the owner of 150 hectares of the estate that he has turned into the Sunchamp Agri-Tourism Park.
Binay’s camp earlier said he only leased 9 hectares of the Batangas property for his piggery and the flower farm of his wife.
It also said Binay sold his interests in the piggery farm to Agrifortuna Inc. in 2010, and only the lease for his wife’s flower farm
remained.
Pictures
Robles also showed to the committee pictures she took inside the Binay home.
One of the photos she noticed when she reviewed the pictures were of several glass bowls on the floor that were covered in bubble wrap. The glass bowls bore the tags “Batangas” and another item was tagged “Alfonso.”
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said it was such a big coincidence that the tags corresponded with the location of Binay’s alleged properties in Batangas and Cavite provinces.
He noted that Binay made a different statement in 2010 and in 2013.
Robles, during her testimony, said the Binay house in Makati was like a museum, after noting that there were a lot of Buddha figures in the living room.
‘Upper-class’
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV also asked her how she would describe the dining room of the Makati home, and whether it was the dining room of a middle-class family.
“It’s the dining room of a politician,” Robles replied.
But Trillanes said his dining room was not like that. He repeated his question.
Robles said she would describe the dining room as belonging to an upper-class family.
Trillanes said he needed to ask that because of Binay’s penchant for portraying himself as a poor man with poor man’s habits like eating with his bare hands.
“But as what we’re seeing here, he has this secret world that is shielded from public scrutiny,” he said.