MANILA (PNA) — Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is also the chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordination Council (HUDCC), has not authorized anyone to supposedly purchase real property in his name and warned against possible land scams being peddled by usurpers, his Chief of Staff (COS) Benjamin Martinez told the press.

"This is a scam and it is unfortunate that there are some people who would choose to use the name of the Vice President to deceive their fellow Filipinos,” COS Martinez said.

He described an incident in Bacolod City wherein a man, unnamed, made the rounds of government offices purportedly looking for properties to purchase for the government’s housing project and for the Vice President’s personal acquisition.

The Bacolod incident was reported to the OVP by Binay’s Negros-based fraternity brothers of the international Alpha Phi Omega.

Another incident in Cagayan Valley was that of a Hermie Ramos who reportedly claimed being Binay’s emissary against irregularities in the region’s offices of the Land Transportation Office (LTO), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and several municipal buildings.

Martinez denies authorizing anyone to purchase real property or to gather reports of irregularities in government offices or even knowledge of Ramos, asking the public to report on suspicious people immediately to the OVP.

Judging from how similar the schemes are and how they almost succeeded, Martinez said he believes their operation is an “organized scam.”

Binay’s office has earlier discovered another scheme, called a “text scam,” which also invoked the Vice President’s name.

Here, people are informed via text of their purported winning raffle prizes sponsored by a “Millionaires’ Club for Vice President Jejomar C. Binay.”

Meanwhile, Binay is scheduled to deliver on Thursday, August 12, certificates of lot allocation to selected beneficiaries of Villa Cuana III, Barangay Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City in Metro Manila.

Just last week, the Vice President handed out 80 certificates of land ownership to former slum dwellers Barangay Sambag in Cebu City for a housing project of the National Housing Authority.