‘Binay used dummies in acquiring condo units’

MANILA, Philippines - For the longest time, the family of Vice President Jejomar Binay has been known or is believed to own a unit in every condominium development in Makati City.

This was given some credence yesterday by the city’s former vice mayor Ernesto Mercado, who revealed in a hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee that he knows of at least six condo units owned by the Binays but are registered in the names of dummies.

Mercado said the Binays own a unit in around 70 percent of the condominium buildings in Makati City.

Mercado said that the alleged ownership by the Binays of the condominium units was the fruit of extortion activities committed by the Vice President and his underlings against property developers.

He said the city government would give developers a hard time securing building permits to force them into offering one unit to the Binays.

“And why not provide one or two condominium units if it would mean savings of P40 million, for example? You will save P40 million by adjusting the start of the payment of taxes by a year for a condominium worth only P30 million. You will agree to that,” Mercado said in Filipino.

“That is the system and that is why it is an open secret in Makati that Vice President Binay, during his term as mayor, got one condo unit in every building,” he added.

He said that he knew of one developer, the Ayala group, which refused to give in to the Vice President.

One of the alleged dummies handed Mercado a sworn affidavit attesting to Binay’s ownership of his unit.

Mercado said Binay owns a 150-square meter unit at The Peak condominium in Salcedo Village, which was under the name of a certain Ariel Olivar.

Mercado said that Olivar was the surveyor used by Binay for the 150- to 350-hectare estate in Rosario, Batangas, which is being linked to the Vice President.

He claimed that a sworn statement from Olivar was handed to him by an unidentified person during yesterday’s hearing, in which he said that the Vice President was the real owner of the unit at The Peak.

“I am not the true and beneficial owner of the property. I am not the purchaser for value, nor have I at any time exercised any act of ownership over the property,” Olivar said in the supposed sworn statement.

“My name was registered as owner to conceal the identity of the true owner of the property. I know the true owner of the property to be Vice President Jejomar C. Binay,” Olivar added.

Mercado admitted that he was allowed to use the unit in 2001 and that currently, someone else is renting the place.

It was in that unit at The Peak where a common law partner of Mercado was found dead in an apparent suicide.

More condos

Mercado also said that the Vice President owns a 129.92-square meter unit at the Le Triomphe condominium in Salcedo Village, registered in the name of a certain Celso Santiago.

He said Santiago is an uncle of the Vice President’s wife, former Makati mayor Elenita Binay.

Mercado showed an invoice from Le Triomphe for Santiago, which was addressed to the Engineering Department of the Makati Municipal Office because at the time, it was then city engineer Nelson Irasga who was in charge of properties.

The third property presented by Mercado is a unit at the Makati Sunrise Towers Hotel, now called the Berjaya Hotel on Makati Avenue. The property is also under the name of Santiago.

Mercado said that he had personally witnessed how one of the owners of the Berjaya Hotel, former Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chairman Manuel Morato, went through a very difficult time securing the necessary documents for the property.

The fourth property allegedly owned by Binay was in the Perla Compania de Seguros Mansion Condotel in Legazpi Village, which was under the name of a certain Benjamin Zapanta.

Mercado noted that Zapanta was a contractor, whose company BD Zapanta undertook several projects for the city government of Makati.

The fifth property was the Prince Plaza II Condotel at the corner of Legazpi, Dela Rosa and Gallardo Sts., which was under the name of Santos F. Panlilio.

Mercado said that Panlilio was the favorite contractor of Binay in Makati City before Hilmarc’s Construction Corp. came along.

As in the case of Le Triomphe, Mercado showed that all communications from Prince Plaza II to Panlilio were directed to the Makati City Engineer’s Office.

The sixth property was a 324-sq.m. unit at the Avignon Tower in Salcedo Village, under the name of Aurora Panlilio, the wife of Santos Panlilio. Mercado said the unit was recently sold for P25 million.

Mercado said many of the developers have approached him and even offered him money to continue his exposés on Binay.

He urged them to come out and testify but they refused, allegedly fearing for their safety.

Donated to DAR

Mercado also moved to turn over to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) 4.2 hectares of land after discovering that the property registered in his name was part of the Rosario farming estate.

He said he was responding to a challenge made by subcommittee chairman Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III that he donate the property to the government.

He said that since the Binays won’t claim it as their own, he decided to heed the challenge of Pimentel.

He said he learned only of his supposed ownership of the parcel of land from news reports.

“I have not previously executed any deed of conveyance covering the above-mentioned property to anyone at any time. As proof that I have no beneficial interest in the property registered under my name and to rectify any injury caused to the interests of landless farmers, I am hereby voluntarily surrendering said property to the Philippine government, through the Department of Agrarian Reform, for distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program,” Mercado said.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes, who was at the hearing yesterday, said that he would have to consult with the legal department of the DAR since the implementation of the CARP ended last June 30.

Businessman Antonio Tiu was claiming ownership of the vast Batangas property.

Tiu earlier said that he purchased the property from a certain Laureano Gregorio Jr. and that it was only 150 hectares and not 350 hectares as claimed by Mercado.

He said that the property has since been developed into what he now calls the Sunchamp Agri-Tourism Park. He was not able to present a title to the property.

Special audit

Meanwhile, Commission on Audit (COA) Chairman Maria Gracia Pulido-Tan said her office has found sufficient basis to conduct a special audit on the Makati Science High School building.

Tan also clarified that COA had never cleared any of the Makati City projects being investigated, contrary to claims by some officials. She did not name them, but she was apparently referring to supporters of Binay.

She said information coming out of the Senate hearings prompted COA to review its files and check if findings had been made on the Makati City school building project.

“We looked back at prior years and there was no mention at all of the Makati Science building. That does not mean to say, however, that we have passed this in audit. So now that our attention is being called to this, we will look at this and we can look into this,” Tan said.