Former DBM exec faces contempt raps

MANILA, Philippines — The former budget official embroiled in the questionable supply deals that ran up to billions is at risk of being held in contempt by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee if he fails yet again to attend Thursday’s investigative hearing.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said he would make sure to have former Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao, who headed the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), cited for contempt for snubbing Sen. Richard Gordon’s committee.

“He (Lao) is no longer a government employee, (but) he has not attended the last two hearings. It seems to be an insult (to the Senate),” Lacson said when interviewed by dwIZ about the Senate’s ongoing probe into alleged corruption in the procurement of COVID-19 supplies in 2020 in which P42 billion was transferred by the Department of Health (DOH) to the PS-DBM then headed by Lao.

He pointed out that since Lao is no longer in government, he is not covered by the memorandum order issued by President Duterte preventing government officials from attending the Senate inquiry into how and why Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. secured billions worth of government supply deals.

Lacson said Lao is clearly liable for graft for having awarded the big deals to Pharmally which only had a capital of P625,000 and apparently overpriced its products.

Citing the Government Procurement Act, the senator said Pharmally should have been qualified to get a contract worth only P5.9 million.

“(Last Thursday) I just forgot the motion to cite Christopher Lao for contempt. I should have made a parliamentary inquiry as to why Lao was not there,” Lacson said. “It was the second time he did not show up, so he should really be (cited in) contempt so that he will be forced to show up and testify.”

Senators meeting

Lacson also revealed that he, Gordon, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Sen. Risa Hontiveros met and agreed to raise and articulate the provision of the Constitution mandating the Senate to conduct inquiries in aid of legislation.

“We all agreed with the same verdict, that we need to take action to fight for the constitutional right of our institution which is the Senate,” Lacson said.

Lacson expressed confidence that the Supreme Court (SC) will rule in favor of the Senate. “We have great confidence that the SC will rule in our favor as, under Section 21 of Article 6, Congress cannot be prevented from drafting legislation. That’s (the hearing) where we get data in crafting laws.”

Pharmally taxes

Meanwhile, Sen. Leila de Lima maintained that the questionable tax returns of the personalities from Pharmally further support the view that the Office of the President has been reduced to defending scammers and tax evaders.

Her remarks came after the Blue Ribbon presented documents obtained from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) showing possible tax liabilities by the companies and personalities involved in the alleged anomalous pandemic purchases of the government.

“That Michael Yang, Christopher Lloyd Lao, Pharmally officers Linconn Ong and the Dargani siblings and Pharmally itself, have questionable tax records is no longer surprising. What can we expect from the people and the company involved in the greatest scam of the century so far?” she quipped.

Drilon revealed that most of the Pharmally officers’ income tax returns (ITR) were not filed, were unreadable or even incomplete and these include Yang’s and Lao’s.

“These are the people Duterte lawyers for every week. He has reduced the Office of the President to defending scammers, racketeers and tax evaders,” De Lima said.