UNA suspicious about ‘secret departure’

Former Makati City Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado. INQUIRER file photo.

MANILA, Philippines—Vice President Jejomar Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) was on Friday full of speculation and suspicion about the real agenda behind the “secret departure” of former Makati City Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado for the United States early this week.

Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, UNA’s interim president, wondered at the reluctance of government agencies, particularly the Department of Justice (DOJ), to confirm Mercado’s departure.

“Why won’t any government agency confirm to the media that Mr. Mercado left for America on Nov. 18? What are they hiding his departure?” Tiangco said in a statement.

Mercado, the key witness in a Senate subcommittee investigation into the alleged corruption and illegal wealth of Binay and his family, told dzBB radio on Friday that he had left for the United States to visit his family and would be there until Nov. 30.

Mercado, who is under the government Witness Protection Program, was quoted as saying that he had asked for permission from the justice department, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Senate.

Tiangco said he understood that Mercado was free to travel as there were no restrictions on his movement.

“But what we know is that the WPP must also be informed of his activities whether he’s going to the islands of Palawan or casinos in Las Vegas. Our question is: Did he ask for permission from the WPP to visit family or does he have other reasons to leave?” he said.

Tiangco said that the reluctance of government agencies like the Bureau of Immigration to confirm Mercado’s departure “apparently substantiates doubts that the probe on Makati is a sham and has been organized to conspire against the Binay family.”

The members of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee were clearly part of the “whole organized conspiracy to protect Mercado at all costs and to let him continue on spreading lies” against Binay, he said.

Tiangco also believes that there could be other reasons for Mercado’s undisclosed trip besides visiting his ailing wife.

“Mercado made a sweeping indictment of major property companies in the Philippines when he testified. He destroyed the names and reputations of these companies. And then after he does this, he leaves for the US to visit family,” Tiangco said.

He said one of the conclusions to be drawn from Mercado’s actions is that “he also wanted to escape the outcry and indignation from these respected companies which he eagerly damaged during the hearings.”