Ties with VP Binay did not affect BSP deal, says Alphaland president

The president of Alphaland Corp. said his relationship with Vice President Jejomar Binay did not affect the joint venture between the company and the Boy Scouts of the Philippines.

 

According to a report on Saksi on Tuesday night, Alphaland president Mario Oreta wrote to GMA News to answer a report about his ties with the Vice President.

 

In the letter, Oreta said he was "not close" to Binay at the time of the deal, and would only be friends with him two years after that.

 

"The Alphaland BSP deal was done in 2008. I knew VP Binay then but I was not close to him. Such being the case, it had no influence whatsoever on the deal," he wrote. 

 

 

He added that Binay "was only an acquaintance" until November 11, 2010, when the Vice President spoke at the necrological rites of his brother, Prospero, who was Binay's "good" friend and a fellow former chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

 

"Since then, I became curious of VP Binay as I wanted to find out what made him mayor of Makati for 20 years and then Vice President. After I saw his interaction with people, I became an admirer and, I'd rather think, a close friend."

 

The Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing into the BSP-Alphaland join venture has also opened Oreta and Binay's relationship to scrutiny, a report from GMA News Research said in a report last week, pointing out that "the two have a long established personal and business relationship." 

 

Regina Capital, Alfonso property

 

As for Regina Capital Development Corp., one of Alphaland's stockholders whose chairman, Victor Limlingan, contributed at least P4 million to the Binays' election campaigns, Oreta said it had "no implications at all to the BSP deal."

 

"If they are, they may be holding it for one of their clients. They are securities brokers," he wrote.

 

He also affirmed in the letter that one of his companies, Constant Builders, bought Binay's lot in Alfonso, Cavite for P8 million.

 

"This was a good deal as I was a shareholder of Mountain Ridge development right beside that lot and 10 years ago, we were already selling at Php 10,000 per square meter. This was a pure solid investment," he wrote.

 

In October 2014, Alfonso's municipal assessor Susan Fenol said a construction company has already purchased the lot from Binay, but the property is still under the Vice President's name because the title has not yet been transferred. 

 

Binay acquired the said property, located in Barangay Luksuhin in Ilaya, Alfonso, from Cecilia Diwa on April 17, 1998. 

 

According to his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) in 1998, he acquired the property in 1994 "thru acknowledgement of services and deed of cession."

 

Former Makati City Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado earlier said the Tagaytay mansion represented payment to Binay after winning a case when he was still a lawyer.

 

The property was listed in his SALN until 2011, but was no longer included in his 2012 and 2013 SALNs. —Rose-An Jessica Dioquino/KG, GMA News