Gerry Limlingan ‘general denial no value’

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Gerry Limlingan and his brother Victor are “entrepreneurs and industry experts, with a long list of accomplishments in their respective fields,” their family counsel Grace Reyes said on Thursday.

The lawyer denied that Gerry Limlingan was an aide and dummy for Vice President Jejomar Binay, whose considerable assets have recently been ordered frozen by the Anti-Money Laundering Council while an investigation on possible graft charges against the official was going on.

If Limlingan was indeed a businessman, why does he make himself scarce instead of being seen in public like other legitimate businessmen? said Senate blue ribbon subcommittee chair Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III.

Limlingan has been cited for contempt for his absence in the Senate hearings, and is now the subject of a Senate arrest warrant. He has yet to be found.

Limlingan’s name first cropped up during a Senate inquiry when former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado described him as Binay’s finance officer to whom he handed bags of cash meant for the then Makati mayor. Mercado said the cash were kickbacks from city infrastructure projects.

Another member of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee investigating the alleged Binay anomalies dismissed Limlingan’s “general denial” coursed through his lawyer, and said it would not save him from arrest by the Senate.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said Limlingan’s statement “has no value at all” and is hard to believe.

“We’ve been conducting this investigation since August last year, and it’s only now that he will issue a general denial?” Trillanes said in a text message.

“Nobody would buy that,” he added.

Limlingan’s lawyer should accompany him to the Senate so he can explain his side, Trillanes said.

Pimentel also shrugged off Limlingan’s statement and noted that it did not seem to have been notarized.

“If he is really not a dummy, why does he have so many defensive posturing mechanisms?” Pimentel told reporters in a phone patch interview.

Limlingan also “totally ignored” the Senate inquiry, despite being the subject of subpoenas from the subcommittee, the senator pointed out. In fact, when the Senate staff went to serve him the subpoenas, he could not be found, Pimentel said.