Haresco denies involvement in fake Saros

Kasangga party list Rep. Teodorico Haresco. Photo from https://www.congress.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines – Aklan representative Teodorico Haresco Jr. denied involvement in the fake special allotment release order (Saro) scam, saying he was singled out in the investigation.

“I don’t understand why of the five of the 32 (accused), I am the one being called the originator of Saro,” Haresco told reporters in a press briefing Tuesday.

“Sana dinamay na lang lahat, para masaya (It would have been better if everyone was involved),” added Haresco, a known ally of former president and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The former partylist lawmaker made the statement after the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) recommended criminal charges against Haresco and four others over the fake Saro scam.

A Saro is a budget document authorizing a government agency to release funds for projects.

Haresco was charged with falsification of Saro.

He went on to say that he was the victim, especially after he received two Saros in October 2013 and January 2014, the first one fake and the second genuine.

Both Saros refer to a P10 million construction of a farm-to-market road in Barangay (village) Oquendo in the municipality of Balete in Aklan.
“I am requesting for a reinvestigation because how can a genuine come up and a fake come up in advance?” Haresco said.

“If I falsified Saros, why is there a genuine one?” he added.
Haresco said his office was not capable of faking Saros, especially as it was composed of working students from the University of the Philippines.
“How can we be the originator of fake Saros when we have no capability at all?” Haresco said.

The Saro scam supposedly involved forging signatures of budget department officials with the use of a photocopying machine.

These fake Saros could be used to convince contractors to advance cash for a project.

The scam prompted the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to junk the Saro system of budget releases seen as a gateway for unscrupulous transactions.

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