UNA says Inquirer report meant to vilify Binay

United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) on Saturday maintained that the Philippine Daily Inquirer report alleging that Vice President Jejomar Binay’s law firm sent more than P100 million to Hong Kong through the same remittance agency involved in the alleged $81-million laundering heist was intended to tarnish the name of its standard-bearer.

“The article was clearly intended to tarnish the reputation and besmirch the name of Jejomar C. Binay in order to discredit him in the public, and thereby diminish, if not destroy, his chances of winning in the May 2016 Elections,” said UNA secretary general Jose Virgilio Bautista in a verified claim to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Bautista said the March 17 banner story of the Philippine Daily Inquirer “contained several defamatory and false statements” against Binay and “put UNA in a bad light.”

The opposition party invoked its right to reply, citing Section 16 of Comelec Resolution No. 10049 which read: “All registered parties and candidates shall have the right to reply to charges published or aired against them.”

Binay’s camp earlier denied allegations that the opposition leader was involved in the bank transactions mentioned in the Inquirer article.

Citing a 62-page report of the Anti-Money Laundering Council, the Inquirer reported that Philrem Service Corp. facilitated the dispatch of various amounts to Citibank in Hong Kong for Three Star Phil, a firm in the British Virgin Islands that was allegedly an investor in a Binay dummy company, in October 2014.

The Senate on Tuesday heard testimony that Philrem had converted $81 million that computer hackers diverted from the Bangladesh central bank to the Philippines into pesos.

The AMLC report said Martin Subido, Binay’s partner in the law firm, opened a bank account at a Banco de Oro (BDO) branch with an initial deposit of $2,449,054.18, which came from BDO Account No. 1001140217126 of Daniel Subido, Martin’s brother. The report said there were big transactions in the SPCMB US dollar account.

The report added that accounts of Binay and his alleged dummies disbursed amounts to Philrem’s account with BDO and that the law firm made two telegraphic transfers to Three Star Capital Limited in Hong Kong. The AMLC report said part of Binay’s billion-peso kickbacks from various infrastructure projects when he was still Makati mayor allegedly went to Hong Kong.

Binay previously filed a P200-million civil suit against the Inquirer, AMLC officials and 12 others for “conspiring to destroy his reputation and consequently, to derail his presidential bid.” RC