Who’s footing ‘Binay’ farm’s bills?

The controversial property here that allegedly belonged to Vice President Jejomar Binay INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Agrifortuna Inc., a company founded by the Binays, has been paying for the electric bills of the 350-hectare estate in Rosario town, Batangas province, that critics allege is still owned by Vice President Jejomar Binay.

It is not businessman Antonio Tiu or his Sunchamp Real Estate Development Corp. that is paying the bills, despite Tiu’s statement that he took over the estate in July after purchasing it from its owner, Laureano Gregorio, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said on Thursday.

As recently as October, Agrifortuna paid the electric bill for the Batangas property, said Cayetano, who had unearthed the records.

Binay and his wife, Elenita, used to be incorporators of Agrifortuna, but according to the Vice President’s camp, they sold their shares to Gregorio in 1995.

“Mr. Tiu came here to say it’s his, but he did not show us anything except a one-page [memorandum of agreement] and alleged proof that he is capable of buying it. All the documents we have asked for, he refuses to submit, but we have submitted numerous documents,” Cayetano said at Thursday’s hearing of the blue ribbon subcommittee looking into corruption charges against Binay.

Dummy for Binay?

The senators on the subcommittee suspect Tiu is a dummy for Binay. But Tiu has denied he is a front for the Vice President, and denounced the subcommittee for “persecuting” him.

Cayetano also said the payments to the Batangas Electric Corp. for the power consumption of the Batangas property was made through electronic checks from the Metrobank branch on J.P. Rizal Street in Makati City, near Makati City Hall.

But he said he would not speculate on the significance of the information.

“I just want to know if this is the check of Mr. [Gerry] Limlingan, of Mr. Gregorio, of Agrifortuna, or of Sunchamp,” he said.

Also casting doubt on Tiu’s ownership claim was Thursday’s testimony of former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado that a 4.2-hectare portion of the Batangas property was in his name.

But Mercado said that while his name was on the land title, he did not pay for the property. He said he only signed the deed of sale for the property upon instructions from Binay, who was mayor of Makati at the time.

Mercado also unleashed more allegations against Binay.

Foreign bank accounts

He presented copies of bank documents that he said showed Binay has been stashing cash in bank accounts abroad since the 1980s, and has not declared the accounts in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

Some of the accounts were in the names of his trusted aides, Eduviges “Ebeng” Baloloy and Gerry Limlingan, Mercado said.

Mercado described the foreign bank accounts as “hidden wealth.”

He said he found the records in a balikbayan box of documents given to him by someone close to Binay’s camp and who wanted to help him.

Wealthy since 1980s

Mercado said that Binay has been wealthy since the 1980s.

He presented a sampling of the bank records he got. Those he showed were for accounts in Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp., ABN AMRO Bank and Citibank Hong Kong dating from 1986 to the 1990s.

The amounts of deposits in some of the documents shown were US$1,000, US$8,282, US$9,140, US$9,464, and HK$20,000 and HK$22,246.

Mercado said Binay did not declare his foreign bank accounts deposits in his SALN.

For instance, in Binay’s 1989 SALN, he declared his cash as amounting to P379,284. But his Hong Kong account had P1.1 million, Mercado said.

In Binay’s 1990 SALN, cash declared was P394,225.64, but his money in Hong Kong was P1.487 million, Mercado said.

In 1991, Binay’s declared cash was P856,937.72 but his money in Hong Kong was P1.916 million, Mercado said.

In his 1994 SALN, Binay put his cash at P2.945 million, but his Hong Kong account had P3.543 million.

In 1996, Binay’s declared cash was P1.041 million, but his Hong Kong account had P3.879 million, Mercado said.

Trusted aides

Mercado said Binay also had overseas accounts in the name of Baloloy, and showed related bank documents.

He said this boosted his claim that Baloloy was Binay’s trusted aide, especially when it came to money.

He earlier alleged that Baloloy was one of those who received bags of cash that he had delivered for Binay when the Vice President was the mayor of Makati.

Mercado said the cash came from Binay’s kickbacks from the infrastructure projects in the city.

He raised the charges in the subcommittee inquiry into the alleged overpricing of Makati City Hall Building II.

Mercado also alleged that the contractor of the building, Hilmarc’s Construction Corp., was forced to pad costs because it had not been paid for the work it did on the Binays’ Batangas property.

Not covered by inquiry

But Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, chair of the blue ribbon subcommittee, said the inquiry would not delve into the alleged failure of Binay to declare the foreign bank accounts, as it was not covered by the scope of the investigation.

According to Mercado, he signed the deed of sale for a 4.2-hectare property in Batangas on instructions from Binay, back when they were still allies. He said he had forgotten about the transaction until a TV station found the title for the property bearing his name.

Mercado earlier alleged that Binay used dummies to hide his wealth, including the Batangas estate now derisively called “Hacienda Binay.”

He, too, was a dummy

It turned out that he had been one of them, he said.

Mercado said he remembered Binay directing him to go to President Jose P. Laurel Bank in Batangas to sign the deed of sale for the property. An original certificate of title was later issued in Mercado’s name.

But while his name was used, he said, it was not he who paid for the property and, for that matter, he was also not the one paying taxes for it. The tax payments are up to date, he said.

“I did not pay for that. They did. They just asked me to go there to sign [the documents],” he said, as he resumed his testimony into the alleged irregularities in Makati City.

He said he had not signed any document authorizing Gregorio to sell the land to Tiu.

Mercado also said that as shown by the documents, he is still the owner of the 4.2- hectare property that is supposed to be part of the Sunchamp estate.

“Up to now, that’s mine because it has not yet been transferred,” he said.

Even if the original title is not with him, he can file an affidavit of loss and get a new copy of the title, he said.

Mercado also showed copies of tax declarations in the name of Anna Marie Gregorio for 5,000 square meters of the so-called hacienda.

No DAR clearance

He alleged that the property was sold to Gregorio by an agrarian reform beneficiary, but without a clearance from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

Cayetano said the implication of Mercado’s testimony was that Tiu’s investors had been duped. Tiu said he had paid P11 million for the P440 million transaction and had spent P50 million for improvements on the property.

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