‘Bulk of evidence shows Binay owns Batangas property’

MANILA, Philippines - Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano believes the bulk of  evidence presented at the Senate Blue Ribbon sub-committee hearings so far shows that the 150- to 350-hectare estate in Rosario, Batangas belongs to Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Speaking to reporters at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig yesterday, Cayetano said businessman Antonio Tiu has not proven anything as far as his claims on the property are concerned.

“The problem as of now is that Tiu has not proven anything,” he said. “The only thing Tiu has proven is that he is a liar.”

Allegations about Binay owning various properties that have not been declared in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) have been going around since 2010 when he was elected vice president, Cayetano said.

During last Thursday’s hearing of the  Blue Ribbon sub-committee, journalist Raissa Robles testified that Binay told her when she interviewed him in 2010 that he had bought 10 hectares of land in Batangas for his piggery at P30 per square meter.

Binay has denied owning any property in Batangas.

During the Senate hearing, Tiu said Binay wife’s Elenita has an existing lease on nine hectares of his 150-hectare Sunchamp Agri-Tourism Park for her orchid farm.

Since coming out as Sunchamp owner, Tiu has presented a non-notarized one-page agreement bearing his signature and that of the alleged seller, Laureano Gregorio Jr., as proof of ownership.

Cayetano said allegations that the Binays tried to launder their wealth between 2010 and the present is now slowly being validated in the Senate.

“But because the Binays do not want to lose control of their properties, they were sloppy in hiding these,” he said.

Cayetano said he is digging deeper into the possibility that Tiu is not only serving as a dummy for the Binays but is also involved in laundering money for the Vice President.

He is looking at the money trail, particularly those that Tiu claimed came from his investors, he added.

Cayetano said indications are that money is just moving around from one company to another, and that two investors of Tiu were from the British Virgin Islands.