Binay ‘bagman’ asks CA to lift freeze order

THE ALLEGED bagman and financial officer of Vice President Jejomar Binay has broken his long silence, but is not surfacing just yet.

Gerardo “Gerry” Limlingan Jr. has asked the Court of Appeals to lift its May 11 freeze order against 170 bank and financial accounts supposedly under his name, his associates and members of his family.

In an urgent motion filed on Oct. 12, Limlingan said the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions covered by the freeze order had failed to present evidence establishing probable cause that would show his accounts were related to unlawful activities.

He admitted to being a personal friend of the Vice President but said this did not automatically mean Binay owned his bank accounts and properties.

Limlingan’s brother Victor, who appeared before the Senate in August, also denied that he and his brother were dummies of the Vice President.

“Respondent has been maligned, slandered and belittled as nothing more than a lackey, a servant and a blind follower of the Vice President,” Gerry Limlingan said in the motion filed by his lawyers from the Yorac Sarmiento Arroyo Chua Coronel & Reyes Law Firm.

He asked the court to “correct the grave injustice” committed against him.

Unsubstantiated

Limlingan and another of the Vice Presidents’ aides, his personal secretary Eduviges Baloloy, have been ordered arrested by a Senate blue ribbon subcommittee for failing to appear in its hearings. The National Bureau of Investigation has yet to locate the two.

Limlingan said the AMLC was “content to rely on the sweeping and unsubstantiated accusations” of former Makati City Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado whose testimony was “utterly suspect and clearly motivated by ill will and malice.”

The AMLC petition stemmed from the investigations by the Senate and the Office of the Ombudsman on alleged corruption committed by Binay, his associates, members of his family and Makati government officials.

The AMLC, through the Office of the Solicitor General, filed on May 7 an ex parte petition seeking a freeze order. This was granted by the appellate court’s former first division four days later.

The court’s freeze order was directed against 242 bank accounts of, investments made by and insurance policies issued to Limlingan, Mercado, Binay, his son and suspended Makati Mayor Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr., among other people.

Overpriced buildings?

According to the AMLC, which acted on the request of the Office of the Ombudsman, the funds in the accounts were derived from the alleged overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building II and Makati City Science High School Building, as well as the alleged 5-percent share from a joint-venture agreement with Alphaland.

In his motion, Limlingan said the AMLC misled the court into believing that he was a man without financial capacity to maintain the bank and investment accounts that he previously and currently owned. He said he was an established businessman and that the funds in his accounts came from legitimate sources and were used for legitimate purposes.

The son of a former Pampanga governor and an economics graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, Limlingan said he had “a long list of accomplishments and vast experience as an entrepreneur and industry expert” for the past 40 years.

Manager to cofounder

From being a product manager in a leading household appliance manufacturer, he said he cofounded a distributor company and headed another machinery-supplying firm catering to Mindanao-based loggers.

He set up another company that provided various products—from slot machines for Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. casinos to construction machinery for the South Luzon Expressway and the Skyway.

He said he also engaged in financial repacking services, became a partner in a tobacco firm, acquired a bank he later sold and invested in a Thai restaurant, a popular music bar, a shuttle bus firm and a movie company.

PSE seat

He was also able to purchase a seat on the Philippine Stock Exchange in 1989 and participated in the stock market bull run until the late 1990s.

Limlingan said the total of 170 accounts identified by the AMLC to be under his name “while staggering is maliciously misleading.”

He said one Security Bank Equities account was counted three times, two accounts do not exist, while the rest of the accounts had either been closed, terminated or rendered inactive before the freeze order was issued.

Only around five of his accounts had been confirmed as open and existing at the time the freeze order was issued, he added.

Limlingan said two firms identified in the freeze order, Omni Security Investigation and General Services and Meriras Realty and Development Corp.—alleged dummy firms of Binay—were originally Mercado’s companies, which the former vice mayor had incorporated and managed.

‘Discovered’

Limlingan said he acquired the two companies as Mercado’s payment for a debt and to help him raise funds for Mercado’s failed mayoral bid in 2010.

The AMLC petition cited a testimony from Mercado, who said he “discovered” that the two companies were Binay’s dummy firms and owned by Limlingan and his wife.

Limlingan said the freezing of his dollar time deposit account was illegal and in violation of Section 8 of the Foreign Currency Deposit Act. He said the AMLC, banks and the financial institutions also froze numerous accounts of individuals and corporations not listed in the freeze order.