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Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Controversies also hurting my candidacy: Sonny
SEN. John “Sonny” Osmeña yesterday urged authorities to hasten the investigation on the shipment of 1,700 kilos of pseudoephedrine, a main ingredient in shabu.
The Cebuano senator said insinuations about his son’s involvement in the controversy are already affecting his reelection bid.
Although no one has actually named Vice Gov. John Gregory “John-john” Osmeña as the politician who exerted effort for the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to release the questionable shipment, John-john was already quoted as denying a hand in the matter.
At the City Hall, Mayor Tomas Osmeña admitted yesterday that he received reports linking John-john, his nephew, to the shipment worth P3.4 billion.
He said he heard reports that John-john went to the BOC office three times on the day the cargo was seized last Wednesday.
“I was surprised. I was really shocked. I heard talks that he (John-John) was at the customs the day the cargo was held but I don’t know if it was just hearsay or what,” the mayor said.
At least two persons with links to John-John and the contraband have cropped up.
Senator Osmeña, meanwhile, said in a dyHP interview yesterday morning, “Giawhag ko kamo nga dali-on ang imbistigasyon nga walay kahadlok ug kaikog kay ma-apil man sad ko sa pasangil (I urge you to speed up the investigation without fear and bias because I can be dragged into this).”
Helpless
Much as he would like to step in as a father, Sonny said he will not, first because it would not look good and second, because “wa na ko’y control niya. Gani, iya kong gitalikdan ug gipanamastamasan sa dihang wa ko nitugot nga molansar siya sa pagka gobernador (In fact, he turned his back on me when I opposed his intention of running for governor).”
“He insists on his present course of life. I do not anymore know what he is doing, nor where he is heading. Much as I would have wanted to, I cannot issue any further clarification on this matter,” he said in a press statement issued yesterday afternoon.
Grownup
The senator said John-john grew up with his mother in the United States since he was
five years old and only came back to the country in 1992 when he was 22 years old. “Hingpit na sa panuigon (He’s matured already),” he noted.
Besides, he said, it would not be prudent for him to step in at this time.
“Pait kaayo sa usa ka ginikanan kansang anak katahapang molapas sa balaod. Dautan ka kon imong talikdan, labaw kang dautan kon imong panalipdan (It’s difficult for a parent to have a son who is suspected of a wrongdoing. Whether you defend or desert him, you’re bad),” he said.
Sonny said he is “disappointed and very much hurt” by recent events involving John-john.
“All my life, I have safeguarded our name. It has never been sullied by such controversies. I have done my best. I cannot do any more,” the senator said in his statement.
During his interview earlier in the day, he said he was constrained to take a break from his campaign and come to Cebu to issue a statement “kay ma-apil man sad ko sa pasangil.”
If there is going to be an investigation, Sonny said John-john is better off cooperating with it.
No BOC official has actually come out to name John-john as the politician who exerted effort to have the pseudoephedrine shipment released.
The link that has been established, however, is the name Teodora Limcangco with address at Sapangdaku, Guadalupe, Cebu City. Limcangco is listed as the president of Coastside Ventures Inc., the consignee of the 1,700 kilos of the controlled substance.
The same name and address appears in the papers of the Perdido Lex Foundation Inc. as
its treasurer.
The dealings of the “bogus” nongovernment organization are currently under investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, after it got some P5 million from John-john’s discretionary funds.
John-john earlier admitted that members of his staff, including Willy Mulla, the chief, helped foundation president Milagros Herrera with the paperwork at the Capitol.
Also yesterday, lawyer Edgar Gica, representing John-john, blamed the linking of his client’s name on Gwendolyn Garcia, John-john’s rival to the gubernatorial post.
In an interview over radio dyLA yesterday, Gica said Garcia’s camp would have the “talent” to link John-john to such controversy again, like they allegedly did in the Perdido issue, because “they would know how to use people and situations.”
But Garcia merely laughed this off yesterday. “These are events nga nagsunod-sunod. Di ni ma-motivate o ma-drama. Unsa man mi, ginoo?” she said also over radio dyLA.
Mayor Osmeña, for his part, said he still believes that an international drug syndicate is behind the shipment and that it will be supplied to an illegal drugs laboratory here.
The mayor is still offering the P1 million reward to anybody who can find a shabu laboratory in Cebu and the P100,000 cash incentive to the BOC task force that intercepted the shipment. KMF/LCR
(March 23, 2004 issue)
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