Miss Earth group urged to scrap program at resort linked to Mercado

MANILA, Philippines – Organizers of the Miss Earth beauty pageant have been urged to scratch as venue a plush Palawan island resort purportedly caught in the scandal swirling about ill-gotten wealth and corruption in Makati City.

Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco, interim president of the United Nationalist Alliance of Vice President Jejomar Binay, wrote separate letters to Ramon Monson, president of the Carousel Productions, and Anne Lorraine Schuck, its executive vice president, urging them to nix the holding, in collaboration with ABS-CBN, of the international pageant on the 100-hectare Coron Underwater Garden Resort from Nov. 23 to 25.

“It may be wise for Carousel Productions to think over the holding of the Miss Earth 2014 event in the said resort in order to protect the reputation of the pageant and the Miss Earth franchise,” Tiangco said in his letter.

“It may already have reached your attention that the island resort is owned by former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, which was allegedly acquired through illegal means and forms part of his ill-gotten wealth. Mr. Mercado has admitted that he got kickbacks during his term as vice mayor and the money he used to acquire the island and build the resort came from illegal sources,” Tiangco said.

Tiangco said Carousel officials had not yet replied to his letter sent on Thursday.

Mercado is a former ally of Vice President Jejomar Binay. Mercado has accused Binay of demanding 13 percent in kickbacks from every contract made during his term as Makati Mayor, rigging bidding for public works and projects, and using dummies to acquire ill-gotten wealth. Binay has denied the charges.

Tiangco claimed Mercado has cornered P1 billion in contracts in Makati and amassed properties and businesses under the names of Mercado’s children, wife, children-in-law and siblings to hide them under the law.