UNA exposé vs Mercado doesn’t clear Vice President Binay

By: Leila B. Salaverria - 10 years ago

Former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Allegations that former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado amassed ill-gotten wealth and used dummies do not necessarily negate his corruption accusations against his erstwhile ally, Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Antonio Trillanes IV said on Thursday.

Pimentel, chair of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee investigating allegations that Binay amassed ill-gotten wealth as mayor of Makati City, said a witness who committed the same crime as the person he has accused did not mean that the accuser would be cleared of wrongdoing.

“If there are two murderers, one can apply to be discharged as state witness so he can testify against the other one and the other one cannot use the defense that [the person who turned state witness] is also a murderer,” Pimentel said in an interview.

He said that during the next hearing, he planned to ask Mercado about allegations by Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) that the former vice mayor himself had amassed P1 billion worth of ill-gotten wealth using dummies.

But Pimentel said the panel would continue to investigate corruption issues in Makati. “We will not lose sight of the subject matter,” he said.

Mercado had a falling out with Binay after the Vice President reneged on his promise to make the vice mayor his successor and instead fielded his son in the 2010 Makati mayoralty race. Mercado is the main resource person in the Senate hearings against Binay, who has denied wrongdoing.

Olivar summoned

Pimentel told reporters that he had subpoenaed engineer Ariel Olivar to attend the next hearing. During Tuesday’s hearing, Mercado produced an affidavit purportedly showing that Olivar was used as Binay’s dummy in the acquisition of a unit at The Peak condominium in Makati in exchange for tax rebates and building favors.

Trillanes, who initiated the probe against Binay, said UNA’s allegations against Mercado contradicted its earlier contention that the former vice mayor was testifying against Binay because he was hard up from gambling debts.

“But if he has a lot of properties, then what is his motivation?” Trillanes said in a phone interview.

He also said UNA’s statement that Olivar had fronted for Mercado did not change the fact that Olivar stated categorically in his affidavit that Binay was the true and beneficial owner of The Peak unit. “It doesn’t make sense for Vice Mayor Mercado to expose his own property,” he said.

Why would he expose own property?

“The Binay camp has been illogical or has been lying outright from the very start. All of these things are squid tactics, smokescreens to destroy the witnesses,” he said.

As for UNA’s dare for the subcommittee to compel Olivar to surrender properties under his name, Trillanes said the party was in no position to tell the panel what to do, since it had been saying it was supposedly a “kangaroo court.”

“If the Vice President will appear before the Senate, then probably we can bend backward to accommodate his requests. But he’s in no position to direct us in any manner,” he said.

Credibility

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Thursday that the National Bureau of Investigation would not turn away any complaint or evidence brought against Mercado, who is under the Witness Protection Program.

Mercado is a whistle-blower, De Lima said, meaning he was once part of the alleged anomalies and had made admissions against interest, so it would not be surprising if there would be irregularities attributed to him.

“Would that affect his credibility? At this point, we cannot say that because, precisely, he is a whistle-blower,” she told reporters.

“A whistle-blower is a different kind of witness because they know what happened, they were once part of the anomalies and irregularities and, in that sense, that makes them more credible because they know what they’re talking about. But, of course, it’s too early for me to completely say that yes, I believe everything that Vice Mayor Mercado is saying,” she added.

De Lima also said the Department of Justice could not say at this point if Mercado would be immune from suit because only the Ombudsman could make that declaration later, as it was conducting the formal fact-finding inquiry on the related complaints.