Trillanes won’t be cowed by defamation case

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said he would not be cowed by businessman Antonio Tiu’s defamation suit against him, and vowed to go after Tiu and expose him as a dummy of Vice President Jejomar Binay.

“Bring it on. In fact, I’ll even say it again, Tony Tiu is a dummy of Vice President Binay,” Trillanes said.

Trillanes and Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano are convinced that Binay has used Tiu as a dummy for a 150-hectare estate in Rosario, Batangas, which Binay has denied is his.

The two senators based their stand on the testimony of former Makati City vice mayor Ernesto Mercado and other individuals that Binay really owns the estate. The property is being dubbed as “Hacienda Binay.”

Tiu has come out to claim ownership of the property, which he said was bought by his company Sunchamp Real Estate Development in 2013 from a certain Gregorio Laureano Jr.

Tiu said that the property was purchased for P446 million, of which he has paid a total of P11 million as downpayment.

But Tiu admitted that the title for the property is not yet in his possession and that what he has purchased at this time is the usufruct or the right to use the property.

Past friendship with Tiu

Trillanes also admitted that he visited the estate during its inauguration last August along with presidential assistant for food security and agricultural modernization Francis Pangilinan.

In that event, Trillanes delivered a speech, the video of which came out recently in social media sites. In that speech, Trillanes described Tiu as “a visionary in the agriculture sector.”

“When I was invited by our good friend Mr. Tony Tiu, even if we have a bad cold this morning, we need to see it, to support him, to show him our belief in his vision for agriculture,” Trillanes said in Filipino in his speech at the inauguration.

In a statement that he posted on his Facebook page, Trillanes said that he did not hide his visit to Hacienda Binay when he was invited by Sunchamp, along with Pangilinan and Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes.

“I knew Tony Tiu then as a good man and a legitimate businessman. As a friend, I put in good words for him not knowing that we, as P-Noy allies, were already being used to legitimize the dummy layering by Sunchamp of the Hacienda Binay,” Trillanes explained.

“Now, after learning that Tony Tiu is nothing but a dummy of Vice President Binay, things have changed. And whatever friendship we had then won’t stop me from unmasking him,” he added.

Accompanied by journalists, Trillanes led an ocular inspection of the Batangas estate last Thursday.

After the inspection, the senator described the property as being “lavish and obscene,” and even though there was nothing there to prove that Binay was the owner, he said that he had no doubt that Tiu was just a dummy for the Vice President.

“I won’t back down in this fight to bring down the corrupt,” Trillanes added.