Abi Binay says Mercado has US property

Binay Family. Photo courtesy of Balikbayan Magazine.

MANILA – Makati Rep. Abigail Binay revealed on Tuesday that ex-Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Maceda owns 10 properties in the United States including a P21.8 million house in Pasadena, California.

She added that the remaining properties have a value of about P5 million and were under Mercado’s name, his wife’s or children’s name.

“We learned that he went to America accompanied by a senator. We were informed that he was searching for Binay properties,” said Binay. “We’re scared because he might show them his properties and say that those are ours.

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However, Mercado said that he went to the US last year to visit his wife who’s sick.

He added that he does not own the properties mentioned by the lawmaker.

“I don’t have a property in America.

If they see one under my name, I’d be glad to donate it to them,” he said.

But he did mention that his wife, who happens to be an American city, has a property in California.

“They are merely diverting the issue.

They want people to talk about me when in fact I’m not the one who’s being investigated,” Mercado pointed out.

In Mercado’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Networth in 2010, he declared that he has no properties outside the country, but there are 17 real estate properties in the Philippines amounting to P62 that were declared.

Mercado, in October last year, revealed that Vice President Jejomar Binay owns a 350-hectare estate in Rosario, Batangas.