MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte has asked Sen. Richard Gordon to return the P86 million he allegedly pocketed when he was chairman of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) or face criminal charges.
Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee which is investigating alleged anomalous purchases of pandemic supplies, said he is ready to face any investigation by the COA.
“I’ll face the COA. You’re hitting me about Subic, I’ll face that. I can answer that,” Gordon said at the resumption of the Senate inquiry into alleged multibillion-peso anomalies in the procurement of COVID-19 supplies by the administration.
“I’ve nothing to be ashamed of because the country progressed and many got jobs when I led Subic,” he said.
He also asked Duterte “not to lie” as the case was COA vs. SBMA and “there’s no Richard Gordon there.”
The P86 million was part of the P140 million in notice of disallowance issued against SBMA by the Commission on Audit (COA), Duterte said Monday night in his regular pre-recorded televised address.
“May I remind COA of their constitutional duty to collect the P140-million notice of disallowance issued against SBMA during Gordon’s time and was stated in the demand letter of SBMA chairperson and administrator Wilma Eisma dated August this year,” he said.
“This has been fully sustained by the Supreme Court as final and executory,” he added. “The P86 million went to his (Gordon’s) own hands. So I want to get (it),” he said.
“That means the P86 million went into your hands, you didn’t spend that much on the government. You used the money or you stole it, return it, that’s personal, not of SBMA,” he said.
Duterte said the money that would be collected from Gordon would go a long way to buy COVID-19 vaccines needed by the Filipino people.
“It could help if we give it to Secretary Galvez to buy more vaccines. That’s my purpose, that’s why I’m interested,” he said, referring to vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.
Duterte had threatened to file a case against Gordon for allegedly failing to return the funds. – Paolo Romero