MANILA, Philippines — Businessman Roberto Ongpin told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that there was nothing “irregular” or “underhanded” in the land deal between the Alphaland Corp., which he owned, and the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP).
Responding to allegations earlier made by former-Makati City Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, Ongpin denied that the deal put the BSP at a disadvantage.
In a statement that he read during the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing on alleged anomalies in Makati City, the businessman said the P600-million investment of the BSP in the form of land was now valued at over P3 billion.
“The Boy Scouts will be making (a lot of money) from the time they contributed the property in 2007, 2008,” Ongpin said.
He added, “Today, their P600 million value that they contributed in the form of land is now worth P3 billion or more than P3 billion, more than five times the value of their contribution.”
“Mr. Mercado should be congratulated for having very skillfully negotiated a very good deal for the Boy Scouts,” Ongpin said, referring to Mercado, who signed the joint venture agreement with Alphaland as then BSP senior vice president for the development of a one-hectare property in Makati City.
Mercado has alleged that the deal was anomalous and that Vice President Jejomar Binay, longtime president of BSP, got millions of pesos in kickbacks from the transaction.
“For the life of me, I simply could not understand why all of these figures are being flashed on the screen and quite frankly, they mean nothing. They are just numbers and they are just assertions,” Ongpin said.
“Finally, we repeat in the strongest possible terms that there’s nothing irregular or underhanded in the Alphaland-Boy Scouts deal. Everything was and is above board as the Boy Scouts executives or management have themselves said here today,” the businessman added.
Ongpin then told the subcommittee that Alphaland filed a P100-million damage suit against Mercado before the Makati Prosecutor’s Office last Wednesday.
“I and Atty. (Mario) Oreta personally signed and swore to a criminal complaint for libel against Mr. Mercado which has been filed with the Makati City Prosecutors Office and I’d like to inform the honorable chairman that we will pursue this case, aggressively pursue this case,” he said.
“It is simply not right for an individual who has an ax to grind to put up slides and makes certain assertions, which are totally meaningless and totally false, simply is not right,” he further said.
Mercado was Binay’s former ally.
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