Senate partial Pharmally report out this week

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate Blue Ribbon committee may release this week a partial report on its investigation into the alleged anomalies in the procurement of P42 billion worth of COVID-19 supplies by the Duterte administration.

The committee, chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon, may also be holding its 12th and last hearing tomorrow, days after President Duterte issued a controversial memorandum barring officials from participating in the inquiry that senators and legal experts say was risking a constitutional crisis.

Gordon last Tuesday said the panel may be ready to release a partial report on corruption scandal that he has stressed reached the doorstep of Malacañang given the involvement of Duterte’s former economic adviser Michael Yang in the transactions of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., the company that cornered over P11 billion in supply contracts from the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).

Yang allegedly financed some of the transactions of Pharmally. The former adviser said he merely referred the company owners to some supplier friends.

“There is definitely fraud, waste and abuse” the senator said last week in responding to Malacañang’s insistence that there was no overpricing in the procurement of face masks, face shields, PPEs, test kits and other pandemic supplies by the PS-DBM using the funds of the Department of Health (DOH).

Senators, who were threatened with jail time by Duterte (‘ipakulong ko kayo’) if they cited for contempt any of his officials, stressed the issue was more than overpricing as it was about powerful people using their connections to bag multibillion-peso contracts without proper screening by the PS-DBM like financial capability.

And there was overpricing, according to Sen. Francis Pangilinan, as the PS-DBM should have negotiated for wholesale or bulk prices with Pharmally instead of using the suggested retail price for face masks and face shields by the DOH.

Aside from overpricing, other possible findings that may be included in the report were the tax liabilities of Pharmally owners and their suppliers; including for the purchase of luxury sports cars and sport utility vehicles; perjury for company owners, and graft for PS-DBM officials, who allegedly gave supply contracts worth billions of pesos to the undercapitalized firm, and for signing inspection reports of goods received when no deliveries were made to facilitate payment to suppliers.

Gordon also earlier indicated that the panel may ask the Anti-Money Laundering Council to look into possible criminal liabilities of Pharmally officials. He said there is a possibility that illicit or even drug money was used to finance the deals.