Binay camp links two businessmen to 'Oplan Nognog'

 

The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay called out two businessmen for their alleged refusal to answer allegations that they took part in secret meetings where a plot to  destroy the opposition standard bearer’s chances of winning the 2016 presidential elections was allegedly hatched.

 

Binay’s lawyer, Claro Certeza, identified the businessmen as Francis Enrico "Eric" Gutierrez and Salvador “Buddy” Zamora whom he claimed have links with the administration party’s standard bearer Manuel Roxas II.

 

Gutierrez owns SR Metals, Inc., a mining company. Its subsidiaries include San R Mining Co. and Galeo Equipment and Mining Co.

 

Zamora meanwhile owns Nickel Asia Corporation, which holds office at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig where the "secret meeting" allegedly took place to discuss plot against Binay which was codenamed "Oplan Nognog."

 

Gutierrez and Zamora are among the private and public individuals named in the P200-million damage suit filed by Binay with the Makati City Regional Trial Court.

 

Certeza said they did not answer the Written Interrogatories that were sent to them as part of the legal proceedings.

 

Written Interrogatories is a mode of discovery that allows a party in a legal case to demand that the adverse party answer under oath questions material to the case.

 

Gutierrez and Zamora were supposed to file their answers 15 days after receipt of the Written Interrogatories served on January 28. 

 

The Written Interrogatories were required to be answered under oath.

 

"If they will not respond as required by the rules, that is an implied admission already na inaamin nila totoo nga 'yung mga tanong namin na nakalagay dun," Certeza said in a report by GMA News' Ivan Mayrina on "24 Oras" on Friday.

 

“The plan to derail Vice President Binay’s presidential candidacy allegedly include the numerous Senate Blue Ribbon Subcommittee hearings, the Ombudsman cases filed by Mr. Renato Bondal, and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) strong-arming the Vice President and his supporters,” Certeza said in a statement.

 

Among the questions that the two businessmen were asked to answer was the presence or attendance of Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV and Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice in at least one of the meetings.

 

Certeza said Gutierrez and Zamora also refused to answer if they personally knew Anti-Money Laundering Council officials and if they were provided copies of the AMLC report on Binay's bank accounts and financial records and if the said report was discussed in their meetings.

 

Cayetano and Trillanes, who are running for vice president in the May elections, were the principal movers of the over a year-long Senate blue ribbon investigation on the Binay family’s alleged involvement in graft.

 

The vice president was mayor of Makati from 1986 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2010. His wife, Elenita, was mayor from 1998 to 2001 while son, Junjun, was elected mayor in 2010 and 2013. 

 

The Office of the Ombudsman dismissed the younger Binay from office late last year for his alleged involvement in the anomalous the construction of the Makati City Hall Building II.  

 

‘Just face the music’ 

 

Roxas and Trillanes shrugged off the Binay camp's accusation that they are behind the so-called Oplan Nognog.

 

"Matagal na niyan, bumenta na 'yan. Walang katuturan 'yan. So anong mae-expect natin sa isang tao na hindi niya maipaliwanag ang kayamanan niya? Eh di, siyempre magtatapon siya ng putik. May isang nakatatandang pulitiko na nagsabi, kung hindi mo mapaangat ang sarili mo, tapunan mo ng putik at pababain mo ang mga katunggali mo," Roxas told GMA News.

 

Trillanes meanwhile said Oplan Nognog was just a concoction of Binay himself as he categorically denied the existence of such plot.

 

"Hindi na kailangan ng mga secret meeting. Walang Oplan Nognog. Si Binay lang ang nagtatawag sa sarili niya ng nognog," Trillanes said, referring to a Filipino comic character of a dark-skinned boy.

 

Cayetano challenged Binay to just face the music.

 

"I think rather than throw stones at each [other], rather than magbatuhan ng putik sagutin na lang yung mga issue," he said.   —Virgil Lopez/KBK/APG, GMA News