The Lord of Makati ? Part I

 
Written by Miriam Grace A. Go
Wednesday, 28 March 2001

Can Binay explain his wealth?

In less than a decade, Jejomar “Jojo” Binay, former chair of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and former mayor of Makati, accumulated at least P80 million worth of real estate properties in Makati and Batangas, which he kept undeclared, our investigation shows. The amount excludes P12 million in declared investments, as well as other businesses that he and his friends reportedly control through dummy corporations.

After serving as mayor for 12 years, Binay now owns a 66-hectare farm in Rosario, Batangas—estimated to be almost double the size of the Ayala commercial center in Makati—according to our investigation. Based on conservative estimates of the land value alone, the property—excluding improvements— is worth about P23 million.

In addition, Binay and his wife, Elenita, current Makati mayor, also own at least two Hidalgo condominium units, located inside the posh Rockwell Center in Makati. A 208-squae meter unit in Rockwell, like the ones occupied by each of the two Binay daughters, costs around P28 million.The three properties alone, worth at least P79 million, were never declared in the couple’s statement of assets and liabilities.

This is in violation of RA 6713, which mandates all officials to file every year the acquisition cost and the assessed and fair market values of their real property. They are also required by law to list other personal property, investments, cash on hand or in banks, financial liabilities, and their business interests and connections.

Violation of the law carries certain penalties—a P5,000-fine and disqualification from public office. Unfortunately, officials take the law lightly as none of them have been put behind bars for their transgressions. Former President Joseph Estrada himself was previously caught committing the same mistake.

We interviewed at least 15 contractors, former employees and farm hands, sources privy to transactions, and local residents who saw Binay inspect the properties, and who all confirmed his ownership of these properties. Without these testimonies it would be difficult to trace ownership to him because documents, if they are available at all, do not link him or his family members to the properties.

Appointed MMDA chair in 1998 and replaced early this year after the Edsa 2 uprising, Jojo Binay wants to go back to City Hall. Perhaps the most popular politician among Makati City’s poor who constitute the majority of the city’s voters, he is the neutral target of political opponents.

Makati’s coffee shops are bursting with stories about Binay’s alleged unexplained wealth which he supposedly acquired during his consecutive three terms as mayor from 1988 to 1998 (he served as OIC mayor in 1986 until the 1988 local elections). And he has a lot of explaining to do, considering that as mayor, Binay received a monthly P32,000 salary and as MMDA chairman, he received P46,000. Elenita received the same salary as mayor.

“These charges are a rehash of old election issues,” says Binay in a written response to questions, brushing aside the allegations of misdeed.In a city where there is an accumulation of tremendous wealth, it is said that Binay himself had amassed riches by tolerating the collusion between the city’s building contractors and permits officials. It is common knowledge in Makati that permits that City Hall gives to builders of condominiums sometimes come with a hefty, under-the-table price.

The local opposition says they have the goods on the former mayor. In fact, it spent a hefty sum on recent paid ads in the Inquirer that alluded to Binay’s posh residences in and out of Makati City.But the tough-talking, sometimes brusque Jojo Binay is unfazed. He says he does “not feel alluded” in the ads anyway.

Landed Family. 
Two hours away from Makati City, in the agricultural town of Rosario in Batangas, a sprawling, modern, 66-hectrae farm is owned by the Binays of Makati. A conservative estimate of the land’s worth is put at P23 million, excluding the improvements made in recent years such as the construction of two huge houses, a piggery, orchidarium, a cock farm; and the paving of a hilly road that would connect the farm to other areas in the town.

The Binays acquired the first chunk of the land—16.6 hectares—in 1991. Former farm hands recalled having started working there in 1993, disclosing that they saw the former mayor there almost every week at the time.
But the couple never declared this in their Statement of Assets and Liabilities (SAL) of 1996, 1997 and 1999, which Newsbreak obtained. The Office of the Ombudsman did not have a copy of his 1998 SAL. The Binay couple is scheduled to file their new SAL next month, as mandated by law.

As of December 1999, the couple declared a net worth of only P20.06 million. In the same period, they declared P12.24 million in business investments- without identifying which these are. In fact, the Binays said their real properties are worth only P3,183,445 as of December 1999.

The only real estate property that the Binays declared as acquisitions since Jojo Binay became mayor in 1998 was a residential property in Alfonso, Cavite. Acquired in 1994, its fair market value as of 1999 was pegged at P59,580. The couple, however, declared in their 1999 SAL that they spent P3 million in improving the Cavite residence.

The other real assets declared by the couple in their most recent SAL were either inherited, purchased or mortgaged to them before they dabbled in public service. Two of these properties were inherited—one in 1951, in Cabagan, Isabela; and the other, with an unspecified date, in San Pascual, Batangas. Three were purchased—Alabang Hills, Muntinlupa (1964); Mariveles in Bataan (1965); and San Antonio Village in Makati (1977).

Of the eight declared properties, three are classified as agricultural while five are residential. The residential properties include the ones in Cavite; Makati; Muntinlupa; San Pedro (acquired in 1964) and Calamba (1984), Laguna. The Bataan, Isabela, and Batangas properties are agricultural.Their 1999 SAL does not say when the San Pascual, Batangas property was inherited.San Pascual is in the second district of Batangas, very near Batuan, where Binay’s father was born (Binay’s mother comes from Isabela, which should explain his Isabela property.

Rosario, Batangas
Along the main road of Barangay San Roque in the Rosario town proer, a huge blue-and-white sign sits in front of heaps of huge fruit baskets. It says: “Jobin B. Mango Station.”

A caretaker of the Jobin B. Mango Station, an old man, refused to answer queries about his benefactor. The most he could say was that “taga-Maynila ang kapitalista (the capitalist is from Metro Manila).” At harvest time in June, he said, they bring the mangoes to business establishments in Binondo. This is the first time workers will harvest from the capitalist’s mango farm, whose location the caretaker gestures to be far-flung—he acquired in only recently.