ANOTHER plunder suit was filed on Tuesday against Vice President Jejomar Binay and his son, suspended Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr., before the Office of the Ombudsman over an allegedly questionable deal between the University of Makati or UMak and System Technologies Inc.
Lawyer Renato Bondal also filed charges against Umak president Tomas Lopez Jr. and claimed that the Binays misused funds that had been intended for Umak’s College of Nursing.
The other respondents in the case are STI officials Eusebio Tanco, Monico Jacob, Annabelle Borromeo and Jack Arroyo Jr., one of the incorporators of the joint venture between STI and UMak.
Bondal also filed charges against Makati Rep. Abigail Binay for allegedly misusing her Priority Development Assistance Fund in 2011. He claimed she released P25 million from that fund to two fake foundations.
The camp of Vice President Binay said they were ready to face the new allegations against him and his relatives.
“We are ready to respond to these latest allegations,” Binay spokesman Joey Salgado said.
“If the Ombudsman were only fair and impartial, these complaints would immediately be dismissed.”
Bondal claimed a total of P504,583,560 for the UMak College of Nursing from 2004 to 2013 was diverted to a joint venture under the Philippine Healthcare Educators Inc. (PHEI) that manages the nursing college.
Bondal accused Binay of using a dummy, a certain Arroyo, a nephew of former senator Joker Arroyo, to earn from the school.
About 20 percent of the shares of PHEI belonged to Arroyo, while STI and UMak had 40 percent each.
According to Bondal, the city government under the leadership of the suspended mayor, and UMak and STI officials adopted a tuition hike for the nursing students ranging from P38,850 to P40,000 per semester against the previous UMak tuition of P1,500 for a Makati constituent and P3,000 for a non-Makati constituent.
In addition, he said, the respondents violated the Government Procurement Reform Act for choosing STI as a partner under the joint venture without proper bidding, adding the College of Nursing building was overpriced at P1.2 billion. Rio N. Araja, Junelyn Olivar and Vito Barcelo
