MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday denied the allegations of corruption leveled against him by President Rodrigo Duterte, maintaining that his record and conscience remain clean after decades of public service.
"I am not corrupt. I take exception to the statement made by the president," Drilon said in a statement. "Since I joined the public service in 1986, I have faithfully adhered to the highest moral standards."
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As he has done in the last few months, Duterte capped off a televised meeting with his pandemic task force with yet another tirade against senators and their probe on the government's deals with its favored pandemic supplier Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp.
The president has become increasingly frustrated with the inquiry that has closed in on a number of his appointees and executives of the firm who he met in Davao City as early as 2017.
"To tell you the truth, [Sen. Richard] Gordon and Drilon, I would not reach the presidency — from my mayorship to the presidency if I was corrupt like you," the president said partially in Filipino during a recorded address aired this morning.
"[I would not be president] if I accepted...campaign funds from the people who you know are up to no good with members of Congress," he added, using expletives.
He did not offer any proof to back up his accusations against Drilon and Gordon who leads the hearings as Blue Ribbon chairman.
"My record is clear and my conscience is clean," Drilon said. "In my 32 years in public service — nine years in the executive and 23 years in the legislative — I have never been tried for corruption in the Ombudsman or Sandiganbayan."
"I have always endeavored to protect my family name," he added. "Aside from the laws that I have authored in my 23 years as [a] senator, all I want to leave a legacy when I retire from politics next year is my good name."
READ: Drilon eyes retirement from politics in 2022
Drilon bares tax returns of Pharmally execs, Duterte appointees
Last week, acting on the motion of Drilon, the Senate panel made public the tax returns of Pharmally, its executives, and former government officials submitted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue under executive session.
Under the chamber's rules, matters taken up in an executive session are confidential "until the Senate, by [a] two-thirds vote of all its members, decides to lift the ban of secrecy."
Drilon presented a summary of the records which showed that Pharmally claimed in its 2020 Income Tax Return a tax credit of P96.09 million and listed an overpayment of P589,163.
This was the same year that the firm bagged contracts worth over P10 billion with the Department of Budget and Management's procurement service.
One of the firm's executives, president Twinkle Dargani, paid an income tax of just P1,000 that year.
“May utang [na,] may reimbursement pa (The government already owes them and they will be reimbursed as well)," Drilon said in disbelief at the time.
Jeff Mariano, the accountant Pharmally outsourced to draft its financial statement, told the Senate panel that the P96 million in tax credit was withheld by the PS-DBM but could not produce the BIR forms to support this.
Duterte's former economic adviser, Michael Yang, who was identified by Pharmally as its financier and guarantor to suppliers, did not file ITRs for the taxable years of 2014 to 2017.
He earlier told senators that he has been conducting business in the Philippines since 1999. — Bella Perez-Rubio