Binay tags nemesis Mercado in negative TV ads

Former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado and Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, La Union—Vice President Jejomar Binay on Monday tagged his nemesis former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado as behind the slew of negative advertisements paid for by a construction company.

In an interview after lunch in a mall here, Binay said Mercado is affiliated with the AB Ison Pilot Trading & Construction Corp., which the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) reported paid for the negative television ads against Binay worth P8.8 million.

“Yung kontratista, tagahakot ng lupa nila Mercado yun,” Binay said of AB Ison Pilot Trading.

(The contactor was the mover of Mercado’s land.)

He said the construction company is a lapdog of his critics from the administration.

“Alam mo na kung san nanggagaling yun… Bakit inaallow yung mga negative survey, nagmamaang-maanggan pa pero sinasabi naman nila kung sino sila,” Binay said.

(You know where it came from. Why are negative survey allowed? They are denying it but they are identifying themselves.)

“Hindi independent yun. At the outset, polluted yun. Mga alagad yun ng mga naninira,” he added.

(They are not independent. At the outset, they are polluted. They are lapdogs of my detractors.)

According to the PCIJ report published Monday, AB Ison paid for 21 ad spots using ordinary folk to question Binay’s refusal to explain the allegations of hidden wealth stashed into dummy accounts, as well as of overpriced contracts when he was still Makati mayor.

READ: Binay camp cries foul over ‘negative’ TV ads

The PCIJ said according to its 2013 Statement of Financial Position, AB Ison only declared P11.1 million worth of assets (including P2.5 million in cash and cash equivalents), and yet it was able to invest P8.84 million worth of pre-campaign political ad spots against the vice president.

The amount it spent for negative ads is also twice to thrice more than its P3.466 net profit from operation in 2013 and P2.8 million in 2012, PCIJ said citing AB Ison’s records at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

READ: What went before: Makati City Hall Building II probe

The PCIJ said AB Ison violated the Corporation Code which imposes an “absolute prohibition” on corporations from giving donations to any party or candidate for the purpose of partisan political activity.

Violation of the code is punishable by a fine of not less than P1,000 but not more than P10,000, or by imprisonment for not less than 30 days but nor more than five years, or both, the PCIJ said quoting the Corporation Code.

Mercado, then Makati vice mayor, turned his back against the Binays after a falling-out with the vice president when the latter chose his son Junjun to run in his stead in 2010. Junjun was later dismissed by the Ombudsman over the allegedly overpriced Makati car park building.

READ: Ombudsman orders dismissal of Junjun Binay

The former vice mayor was also the complainant of several plunder and graft complaints filed before the Ombudsman against the Binays on alleged corruption in Makati.

Mercado testified before the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee which heard the allegations of Binay’s secret hacienda, millions of kickbacks from overpriced deals and the purportedly anomalous Alphaland deal. The subcommittee recommended the filing of plunder charges against the vice president. RAM

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