Next Senate Binay probe to focus on Mario Oreta’s 5% share

By: Niña P. Calleja, TJ Burgonio - 10 years ago

Alphaland Corporation president Mario Oreta. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Property developer Mario Oreta, whose 5-percent share in a property deal allegedly ended up with Vice President Jejomar Binay, won’t get off the hook that easily.

The Senate blue ribbon subcommittee said it will invite Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares to its next hearing to determine whether Oreta’s purported failure to declare his income from the 5-percent share constituted tax evasion, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, the subcommittee chair, said on Friday.

“We better get the opinion of the BIR commissioner if additional compensation for a certain year in the form of stocks is taxable or not,” Pimentel said.

In June 2008, the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP) concluded a deal with Alphaland Corp. to develop a Makati prime property owned by the BSP into a residential and commercial facility, now known as the Alphaland Makati Place project.

Binay’s alleged share

Former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado alleged that a 5-percent share from the deal was given to Binay through Silvertown Property Development Corp. shares transferred to the company, Noble Care, owned by Oreta, who is now the Alphaland Corp. president. The Silvertown shares were later swapped with Alphaland shares.

Oreta said the 5 percent that went to Noble Care was part of his compensation for closing the deal with the BSP.

Testifying at last Wednesday’s hearing on the deal, Alphaland CEO Roberto Ongpin called Mercado’s claim “complete nonsense.” The 5 percent was Oreta’s “carried interest” for closing the deal, he said.

Hearings resume in March

Pimentel said the hearings on the BSP deal will resume in early March because Sen. Sergio Osmeña III and other senators were “not satisfied” with the answers given at the last hearing.

But for now it would be “unfair” to conclude that if Oreta failed to prove ownership of the 5 percent, that belonged to the Vice President, Pimentel said.

“That’s multiple-step assumption,” he said, but credited Mercado for his good research on the transaction.

How it was done

Quoting Binay’s aide, Gerardo Limlingan, Mercado said that 5 percent of the 20 percent represented Binay’s share to fund his campaign, for which the latter got an initial P189 million.

According to Mercado, for Binay to collect his share, in August 2008, Alphaland granted Noble Care 5.88 percent shares in Alphaland/Silvertown, equivalent to 2,031 shares at P10 each, or P20,310. It also granted Noble Care a P100.4-million loan, Mercado said.

After two years, Alphaland bought back Noble Care’s shares for P88.973 million, and wrote off its P100.4-million loan, or a total of P188.973, he said.

Binay to sue

Binay on Friday asked why the congressional investigation into the Mamasapano clash was concluded after just two hearings while hearings on the allegations of corruption against him seemed not to be winding down.

“The Senate is one for the books. You see, an important investigation into the (Mamasapano) massacre is done now after two hearings. But these full of lies, one after another has reached to 15 sessions,” Binay said in a radio interview in Iloilo City on Friday.

Sen. Grace Poe, who is leading the Senate probe on the Mamasapano incident, said she was considering terminating the investigation, after holding three hearings.

The Senate has also conducted two executive sessions.

Binay said his detractors at the Senate had to prolong the investigation into his alleged corruption, hoping to change the people’s perception about him.

He said he would file charges against the senators and people leading the attacks against him.

“In the next few days, just wait and see. I will file charges,” he said.

“(The senators) are no longer covered by immunity since they were interviewed and what they said were out in the newspapers,” Binay said, without naming names.

4 more hearings

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who initiated the investigation into the Binay’s allegedly corrupt transactions when he was the mayor of Makati, said the Senate subcommittee was planning to wrap up its investigation before Congress takes a break.

Four more hearings will be held before the investigation’s conclusion, he said.