MANILA, Philippines–Businessman Antonio Tiu on Wednesday lambasted Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano for making light at last week’s Senate hearing of the threat that kidnapping posed to his family should he open his bank accounts.
“This must just be politics for you, but for me and the Chinese-Filipino community, kidnapping is a serious issue and a real threat,” Tiu said at a press conference in a Quezon City restaurant.
After his statement, Tiu showed the videoclip of Cayetano asking him to open his bank accounts. Tiu refused because it would expose him, his family and his business partners to security risks.
At last week’s Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing on the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building II, Cayetano said kidnappers already knew anyway that Tiu was worth billions since the businessman had already disclosed it.
Tiu argued that the amount was not his personal worth but that of his companies with several investors.
Then Cayetano said victims could negotiate with kidnappers while the listed shares were being sold for ransom.
“I went to the Senate inquiry as a resource person. But to my total dismay, I was accused of being a dummy, a money launderer, a tax evader and a dishonest businessman,” Tiu said on Wednesday.
“Instead of focusing on the alleged overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building II, I found myself being grilled by the senators on issues that had nothing to do with the purported subject matter,” he added.
“To the honorable senators, may I know what I and Sunchamp Farms have to do with the Makati City Hall building?” Tiu said.
Former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado has alleged that Hilmarc’s Construction Corp. was forced to inflate the cost of the P2.28-billion parking building because it was not paid for the work on the 350-hectare agricultural estate purportedly owned by the Binays in Rosario town, Batangas province.
Tiu has come forward to claim ownership of part of the estate, a 145-hectare agri-tourism park, through Sunchamp.
Exposing himself
Reacting to Tiu’s assertions, Cayetano said it was the businessman who exposed himself to kidnappers when he claimed ownership of several companies, including Sunchamp Realty Development Corp. and the agribusiness companies, worth billions of pesos.
“It was he who told the kidnappers he is rich,” he said in a phone interview.
Cayetano said he merely challenged Tiu to have his account examined, and then the issue of kidnapping came up.
“What’s bothering you is not the kidnappers, but your conscience,” he said, addressing the businessman.
The senator, who grilled Tiu for hours in last week’s hearing on the P1.2-billion, 350-hectare high-end farm in Rosario, Batangas, allegedly owned by Vice President Jejomar Binay, believed the lies being exposed about the businessman were taking a toll on him, his family and business.
Money flow
“We uncovered more this week. That instead of just claiming the property, he’s involved in the flow of money of VP Binay and possibly other unscrupulous officials in our society,” Cayetano said.
He advised Tiu to talk to whistle-blowers Benhur Luy, Luis “Chavit” Singson and Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, and learn from them that the only way to have peace was to “come and tell the truth.”
“All he can do, if he wants redemption, is come and tell the truth,” Cayetano said.
Tiu said he was in Spain when news reached him that he was accused of being a dummy for Binay, which he had repeatedly denied. He filed a defamation case against Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV for those remarks.
Binay and Cayetano are eyeing the 2016 presidential election, prompting Binay’s camp to criticize the Senate inquiry as politically motivated.
“While abroad, I received several text messages warning me to cooperate if I wanted a free pass. Otherwise, various government agencies would run after me. These text messages constitute real threats and blackmail,” Tiu said.
Full state arsenal
“And when they couldn’t get anything from me, the senators have unleashed against my companies the full arsenal of the government—BIR, AMLC, DENR, DAR, NBI and SEC,” Tiu said.
Asked about a possible tax evasion case for lack of capital gains tax payment on the supposed sale of the Batangas property, Tiu said all his business transactions were aboveboard and the documents would be presented in the proper venue.
He said the transfer of title to Sunchamp was still ongoing and he was committed to following the law.
Seek police assistance
At a press briefing, Trillanes said that if Tiu feared for his security, he should go to the police for assistance.
Trillanes said he had nothing to do with any threat or blackmail the businessman said he had received. He said he felt that if there was any serious threat to Tiu, it would come from the Binay camp.
The senator said he was not moved by Tiu’s laments that the Senate subcommittee had insulted him despite his patient explanations during the hearings.
He believed the subcommittee had already established that Tiu was just a “dummy” for the Vice President.
‘Drama’
“I’m sorry, I was not moved by his drama. We will go after him. We will get to the bottom of this. All those who have been part of the cover-up will be made to answer and he is among them,” Trillanes said.
“The problem here is he made a fool out of himself by lying through his teeth, and the whole country saw that,” he later added.
Trillanes also said he had nothing to do with threats that Tiu received and he had no direct communication with the businessman. He said he has no reason to harm Tiu, who, he said, should take a look at his cohorts instead.
“If there are security threats, those did not come from us. In fact, if I were him, I would look at the people I’m conspiring with, because they are the ones who will gain if he would disappear,” he said.
“If he feels there are threats against him, he should go to the police and ask for protection,” Trillanes added.
He further said he earlier tried to reach out to Tiu to try to “save” him, but the businessman was apparently part of the cover-up.
When Tiu’s name first cropped up in the Senate probe, Trillanes said he tried to arrange a meeting with Tiu and he initially received word that the businessman was amenable to a meeting. But Tiu eventually backed out, he said.
“The message there is he should tell the truth. Come out clean and he will be protected,” Trillanes said.
He added that this was his same message to other resource persons, including Hilmarc’s Construction Corp., which built the Makati City Hall Building II.
“If you will join the cover-up, then you have a big problem, and that’s not my fault,” he further said.
He said he had nothing to do with the decision of other government agencies to look into Tiu’s dealings. “I’m not that powerful.”
Trillanes also said Tiu appeared to be angling for public sympathy by holding a press conference a day before the scheduled resumption of the subcommittee hearing on the alleged Makati corruption.
Trillanes said Tiu would say different things when he appeared before various media shows, but his story would fall apart when scrutinized in the Senate hearings.