Former officials of the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) are all courting “contempt” charges from the House of Representatives if they continue to snub the congressional hearing on the P47.6 billion anomalous Pharmally transaction.
A “show-cause” order has been issued by a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee conducting an inquiry into the Pharmally controversy against against former PS-DBM chief Lloyd Christopher Lao, lawyer Warren Rex Liong, a former Overall Deputy Ombudsman, and other ex-officials of the PS-DBM.
Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, one of the young lawmakers in the House of Representatives, said the presence of these former officials is paramount to the oversight functions of the House panel in the exercise of its mandate.
“For a guest speaker whose presence is very vital, very important in the conclusion of this certain inquiry, without giving justification as to his absence, I think we can request a show-cause order,” Adiong said.
“So that this committee may be appraised on what are the grounds, what are the reasons, justifications on why he – I don’t know if deliberately or not deliberately – skip this committee hearing when he was in fact given a formal invitation and there was no reply,” he added.
The panel is on its third hearing on the Pharmally controversy, and Lao and the other former officials have continuously snubbed the congressional inquiry, including Liong who was in charge of the fund transfer from the Department of Health to PS-DBM at that time.
“There must be a show-cause order as to what could be the next step should he decide not to attend again in the next committee hearing,” Adiong said.
Adiong then moved in a motion to serve a show-cause order to Lao and other PS-DBM officials who were the incumbent during the time of the Pharmally controversy. It was seconded by Rep. Benny Abante and carried by the committee headed by Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin, a former DOH Secretary.
Abante said these resource persons who continue to snub the hearings are courting contempt if they still fail to show or explain their absences.
Former DOH chief Franciso Duque, in an earlier hearing, said former President Rodrigo Duterte directed the transfer of PHP47.6 billion from the DOH to PS-DBM at the height of the pandemic.
Garin argued that there should have been a memorandum of agreement on the purchase of the medical equipment and supplies as they are not “common use” supplies, contrary to the assertions made by Duque in previous hearings.
The country incurred some P190 billion in debt in its campaign to mitigate the ill effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
DOH USec Achilles Gerard Bravo, who was present in Tuesday’s hearing, broke down the P47.6 controversial purchase from Pharmally as follows: PPE and laboratory equipment – P30.7 billion; general TM viral RNA, facemasks, face shields and surgical masks – P158 million; cadaver bags – P13 million; automated nucleic acid extraction – P42 million; RT-PCR – P1.9 billion; GM amplify – P8.7 million; surgical mask – P2.3 million; covid testing kits and consumables – P4.1 billion; mechanical ventilators – P1.3 billion; various test kits – P2.5 billion; PPE – P1.8 billion; cloth masks – P75 million; head cover, cloth mask, gown and cover-all – P2.6 billion; and N95 masks – P2 billion.
Ang Probinsyano Rep. Alfred delos Santos said he is bothered by the fact that some P2 billion is still unaccounted for in the P47.6 billion anomalous purchase.
“I just want to say that we need these documents to see how big the transactions are so we could also do something in Congress,” Delos Santos said.
According to Rabahansa Dagalangit, Team Supervisor from the Fraud Audit Office of the Commission on Audit (COA) tasked to probe payments to Pharmally, they found several irregularities in the Pharmally transaction. These include the absence of a Memorandum of Agreement that should govern the purchase through PS-DBM, the incapacity of Pharmally to deliver the supplies procured and other seemingly illegal acts covering the P47.6 billion purchase.