CEBU, Philippines - The speech titled “To Serge with love,” did not mention Sen. Osmeña’s name and instead was delivered by Haresco to “this honorable senator.”
Haresco said that he is forced to defend himself “from unwarranted and malicious accusations of a certain senator regarding the very successful18-year old bridge program, the President’s Bridge Program, or Tulay ng Pangulo.”
Last month, Osmeña revealed that the Senate Blue ribbon committee will be investigating the controversial public works project on bridge contracts that reached up to P111 billion in which Haresco was a direct link to when he was a special representative for promotions of Mabey & Johnson Ltd., the British bridge-building firm that was awarded exclusive contract to supply for the bridge projects.
Osmeña said that the bridge projects were made to appear as if it went through government-to-government transactions and did not need to go through bidding. Osmeña said that aside from being overpriced, the bridges are useless to the people.
However, Haresco said that the allegations are “baseless, improbable and absurd,” adding that Osmeña blatantly violated the rules of inter-parliamentary courtesy and his constitutional rights to due process by launching a ridiculous attack.
Haresco questioned Osmeña’s motives on singling him out in the controversy and why the senator brought this up just now when this was implemented years ago.
Aside from this issue, he questioned the senator on taking part in working against the development of Aklan by blocking House Bill 1109 which he says would have given free patent land rights to the inhabitants and investors in Boracay.
The representative questioned Osmeña’s motive as to the possibility of having been influenced by political aspirant Maria Bettina Garcia of Aklan. Haresco also questioned if Osmeña was linked to her through “other personal relationships”.
The representative said that Osmeña went overboard in his investigation.
“This honorable senator has resorted to Gestapo tactics to get information. He has stooped so low as to use his NBI assistant to interview a former officer of my former company, on a late rainy Sunday afternoon, when most of Metro Manila was flooded. He has conducted background checks on my personal and professional life going back some 40 years, when I was starting out as a micro entrepreneur. He has done this without my consent or knowledge, like I am some criminal or lawbreaker.”
Haresco said that the allegations on the bridge anomaly were already dismissed in 2009 by the office of the Ombudsman.
He also challenged Osmeña to visit the bridges on a rainy day.
“He might be grateful that a bridge exists to save him from the raging river currents, and that it is there so his vehicle can speed him back to the safety of his posh Makati home in a village for the rich and famous.”
Haresco added that Osmeña should lay down the facts and not the “statistical and accounting illusion about alleged overpricing nor the calendar illusion about when the program commenced.”
Haresco ended by stating that he has a clean slate and called upon his colleagues to investigate on those truly involved in the issue and expose anyone who is behind them.
“And I say to this honorable senator: if you have something, bring it to court. Desist from using the Senate investigation being a ‘media-lomaniac’ you are for your personal and political glory towards 2016 and beyond.” - /BRP (FREEMAN)