President Duterte directed the Office of the Solicitor General to prompt the Commission on Audit on the notice of disallowance sent to Senator Gordon when he was still the head of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority over two decades ago. Duterte said Gordon has been painting everyone black in the Senate probe on contracts awarded to Pharmally while avoiding accountability on the COA disallowance.
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee on Monday said they have sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to locate Pharmally employee Krizle Grace Mago, who testified last week that she had been ordered to tamper with the expiry dates of face shields that her company sold to the government.
“We’ve asked the NBI to take a look. So far, we have no news yet,” said Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the committee, who said Mago has not responded to calls and messages from his panel.
Senator Panfilo Lacason said Mago may be cited in contempt if she fails to attend a hearing set for Thursday.
“So far, we have no contact with her. But we have a hearing on Thursday, and if she doesn’t show up, we can cite her in contempt,” he said.
She faces the same fate if she attends and changes her statement or becomes evasive, Lacson said.
For his part, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III given Mago’s admission, there must be “restitution” for the government, but did not say whether criminal charges must be filed against Pharmally executives.
“I have ordered the procurement and supply chain office of the DOH to check if there are face shields with tampered production dates from 2020 to 2021. For those face shields that were tampered, there has to be restitution for the government as to the worth of the tampered face shields,” Duque said.
Lacson clarified the Senate committee is bent on locating, not arresting Mago, adding that the offer for protective custody could not be imposed because it was voluntary.
On Monday, lawyer Ferdie Topacio denied his client, Pharmally executive Linconn Ong, will turn state witness.
Topacio described as inaccurate reports about his client asking for an executive session.
“He’s (Ong) being pressured to testify in an executive session. In that way, I will come and see Director (Rudy) Quimbo who is the secretary-general of the Blue Ribbon committee to convey to him our reply on what they want to happen in the executive session,” Topacio said.
He noted that Ong did not ask for an executive session, nor will he speak in such a session with members of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.
Before Topacio visited Ong, Lacson confirmed the Pharmally executive’s request to speak to the committee in an executive session, prompting the senators to temporarily halt his transfer to Pasay City jail. Ong is currently detained at the Senate.
Lacson said he could not understand how Topacio could take back what was on record at Friday’s hearing, when Ong asked for an executive session.
Topacio said Ong is “worried about everything” and “scared.”
“He doesn’t know what is happening,” the lawyer said of the Pharmally executive.
Earlier, Gordon said Mago may be considered a fugitive if she remains unreachable, days after admitting that her company swindled the government.
“She becomes a fugitive in my book as she refuses to face us,” Gordon said.
Gordon revealed on Sunday that his committee could no longer reach Mago.
“Flight is an indication of guilt. If she cannot be reached, she is hiding something,” Gordon said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The senator said Mago could be found in her condominium unit as of Monday. He said there is speculation about Mago being protected by “certain bodyguards” but he did not offer any other details.
Despite having a paid up capital of only P625,000, the startup Pharmally cornered P8.6 billion in government contracts through the intercession of Michael Yang, former economic adviser to President Rodrigo Duterte. Full story on manilastandard.net.
Despite the revelations at the Senate hearings, the Palace continued to defend Pharmally, denying that it swindled the government.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque described the testimony of a Pharmally official as “nothing” and said more evidence was needed to prove that the company had cheated the government of billions of pesos.
Roque said Mago’s admission was not enough to prove that Pharmally purchases were irregular.
“This needs to be substantiated with physical evidence. Talk is cheap,” he said.
“The question is: will that testimony stand? Let us see because that needs to be substantiated,” Roque, a lawyer, said.
He also said there was no evidence that the purchases done through the PS-DBM were overpriced.
“What are they going to link to the President? It’s just noise. They are desperate to win the next election,” he said.
“They also alleged tampering of manufacturing data, let us see if there is truth to that. If that’s proven, the President will not tolerate that, if that really happened,” Roque said.
Meanwhile, Duque told a House hearing that said he was looking into Mago’s claim about tampered face shields.
Duque told the lawmakers that face shields have a shelf life of 36 months.
He also said about 2 million face shields brought from Pharmally have been distributed to and used by medical front-liners.
During the meeting, the panel approved a motion to subpoena Mago to compel her presence in the House probe as a resource person.