SEC documents show links between alleged ‘bagman’ and VP Binay

A GMA News Research study has found Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents which show a connection, through several companies, between a Gerardo S. Limlingan Jr. and Vice President Jejomar Binay, GMA 7 news program “24 Oras” reported on Tuesday.



“Gerry” Limlingan had been described by former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado as a “bagman” who received bagfulls of cash, supposed kickbacks, in behalf of then Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay.

Mercado had also claimed during his Senate testimony that Limlingan had served as Binay's dummy in various companies, including the controversial "hacienda Binay" in Rosario, Batangas.

According to the SEC documents, Gerardo S. Limlingan Jr. was either an incorporator, officer, or stockholder in around 30 companies. People said to be close to the Vice President were also named in around half of these companies.

In the case of the JCBinay Foundation, Inc., the names of Limlingan and the Vice President himself, along with two of his children, appear in the documents.

Mercado's name, along with Limlingan's, also appears in documents for three corporations - the JCBinay Foundation, Safeway Shuttle Inc., and Saint Raphael Science College.

Businessman Edgardo Lacson, who had admitted he was a friend to both the Vice President and Limlingan, was an official and an incorporator for the JCBinay Foundation Inc., Tanglaw ng Kalikasan Foundation Inc., and Netciti.com Corp.

Lacson also owns a part of the 350-hectare "hacienda Binay."

University of Makati president and a PAG-IBIG Fund board trustee Tomas Lopez and his wife Hirine were involved in eight of the Limlingan companies. These are Marino Oceania d.s. Company Inc., LSL Venture Holdings Corp., My Heart's Country Store Inc., Agrifortuna Inc., JCBinay Foundation Inc., Tanglaw ng Kalikasan Foundation Inc., Sarmiento Pacific Holdings and Equity (formerly Pacific Equity Inc.), and Bukas Palad Holdings Inc.

Hirine Lopez was also one of Binay's campaign contributors and was an official of Omni Security Investigation and General Services, a company which had been awarded millions-worth of contracts in Makati City.

GMA News had attemped find five of the Limlingan companies, all of which were supposedly located in a building on Bagtikan street in Makati--Hedra Int'l Inc., Int'l Agro-Fisheries, Int'l Contact Business System Inc., Los Baños Resources Dev't Consultants Inc., Technicon Int'l Corp. However, the building's security officer said that their establishment was now purely residential, as the companies had left.

Some seven companies--Bukas Palad Holdings Inc., Fiesta Land Leisure Corp., Int'l Contact Business System Inc., Project Research & Mgmt. Corp., Sarmiento Pacific Holdings and Equity, Technicon Int'l Corp., and Los Baños Resources Dev't Consultants Inc.--supposedly located on Pasong Tamo extension in Makati, were also no longer to be found on their listed address.

The GMA News Research study also found another Limlingan, a Gerardo Castañeda Limlingan, who had contributed to VP Binay's campaign.

GMA News is still verifying whether there was a connection between Gerardo Castañeda Limlingan and Gerardo S. Limlingan Jr., though each has his own tax identification number and address.

However, three companies Gerardo Castañeda Limlingan is connected to--Corp. Solutions Manpower and General Services Inc., Unanimous Holdings Inc., and Vive Hotel Inc.--have the same address as Omni Security Investigation and General Services on Angono street, Barangay Poblacion in Makati City. — Trisha Macas/DVM, GMA News