BY ASHZEL HACHERO and JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR
SEN. Richard Gordon yesterday called President Duterte a “bully” and accused him of “lawyering” for Chinese businessmen and his appointees implicated in alleged overpriced purchase of pandemic supplies from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation.
“Quite frankly, Mr. President, you are boring. Di ako natatakot sa inyo. Di ako duwag (I am not afraid of you. I am not a coward). Do your worst, as you did with the ABS-CBN. Do your worst like what you did to a senator who was elected by the people,” Gordon said in his opening speech at the continuation of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing yesterday on the purchase of alleged overpriced pandemic supplies.
Gordon was apparently referring to opposition senator Leila de Lima who was jailed in 2017 after Duterte accused her of being involved in the illegal drugs trade when she was justice secretary under the previous administration.
De Lima, a staunch critic of Duterte, remains in detention at Camp Crame.
“I’m not going to waste my time with you, Mr. President, because you’re no longer respectable as far as I’m concerned and as far as most of the Filipinos are concerned,” he added.
President Duterte on Monday night directed the Department of Health to look into the COVID-19 tests being done by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) which Gordon chairs, following a reported high number of false positive results.
This is Duterte’s latest tirade against Gordon who is spearheading a Senate probe into alleged irregularities in the COVID-19 response program of the government.
The President, in his bi-weekly “Talk to the People” address, said he received reports that 44 of the 49 or 89.79 percent of hospital personnel who tested positive in the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) done by PRC yielded negative results in another test done by other molecular laboratories.
The PRC, in a statement, said it is highly confident in the capability of its 13 molecular laboratories nationwide to produce accurate COVID-19 test results as seen in the outcomes of the proficiency tests (PTs) conducted by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
“All 13 PRC molecular laboratories obtained a 100% score for the proficiency tests they underwent from the time the first molecular laboratory opened in April 2020,” said the PRC.
“This test and the strict implementation of quality standards in all PRC laboratories based on protocols set upon by manufacturers, in line with the standards set forth by the DOH and the RITM, assure the public of the accuracy of test results released by PRC,” it added.
The humanitarian organization said even the particular PRC laboratory in Subic Bay Freeport Zone identified by Duterte is producing highly accurate results.
The PRC said the Unihealth-Baypointe Hospital and Medical Center was able to get 100 percent accurate results in the 48 samples.
“Of the 48 samples, 45 turned out positive, thus triggering a complete re-run and a manual process to eliminate the possibility of erroneous results, which may be caused by cross-contamination. On the second run, the results came out exactly the same,” it said.
“The Subic laboratory follows standard operating procedures and quality assurance guidelines as it has done for all 122,000 samples processed by the Subic lab from July 1, 2020 to Sept. 3, 2021,” it added.
The PRC and the Department of Health said “false positive” results may occur when the timing of the collection of specimens happen far apart.
“It is possible for test results from the same case collected at two different time points to vary, potentially due to the timing of specimen collection,” the DOH said in a statement.
“The timing of tests done relative to exposure to the virus are factors that may produce different results. The clients may have truly been negative already by the time their second sample was taken,” the PRC said.
Gordon noted the issue on false-positive results was raised by House deputy speaker and SAGIP party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta on Monday. Marcoleta said a retest three days later yielded negative results.
He said in mixed Filipino and English: “When they underwent testing, 40 of them tested positive but we rechecked them — that’s the molecular laboratory in Subic — we found out about the positive. And now, the followers of Attorney Duterte are saying these were incorrect and are asking that we be investigated.”
Gordon said the PRC reports “all the testing” to the DOH and the RITM.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III confirmed all PRC COVID tests are submitted to his department and the RITM in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.
Duque also said the RITM is already looking at the incident in Subic.
Under Gordon’s questioning, Duque also said the PRC has the highest COVID-19 testing output and it is helping the government.
Gordon also called Marcoleta a “demolition expert.”
Marcoleta said Gordon should stick to the facts “and not unnecessarily resort to ad hominems.”
“The need to look into the complaint (against PRC) is necessary to maintain the integrity of the data in battling the pandemic. Unreliable data will worsen the way we address the problem and will lead us to nowhere,” he said.
Marcoleta, one of the senatorial candidates of the PDP-Laban Duterte wing, said what the Senate committee “does is no longer in aid of legislation.”
“Even if it invokes its oversight function, a prolonged period of investigation on only one supplier betrays its objectivity. The committee cannot take the place of our national prosecution service, to whom the committee should refer any questionable transactions they may have exposed during their inquiry, if any,” he said.
ANNUAL REPORT
Duterte asked Gordon anew where the PRC’s annual report to the Office of the President is, saying he never received one since he assumed the presidency in 2016.
Under Republic Act No. 10072 or the Philippine Red Cross Act of 2009, PRC must submit an annual report to the OP.
He said PRC can be liable for violation of the graft and corruption if they failed to submit the annual report.
“That is actually an omission. That is something which you failed to do. At huwag mong sabihin wala kang responsibilidad diyan. If it is required by law and you failed to do it and there’s malice because you wanted to hide your crimes, paano mo ginastos, paano mo siniphon iyung pera sa Red Cross, then it becomes a case of anti-graft (That is actually an omission. That is something which you failed to do. And do not say that you do not have responsibility. If it is required by law and you failed to do it and there’s malice because you wanted to hide your crimes, how you spent it, how you siphoned the money of the Red Cross, then it becomes a case of anti-graft),” he said.
The President also asked Gordon if he received P88 million worth of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and “parked” it at the PRC.
“So you co-mingled it with the money of the Congress, of the Red Cross and of Congress… the money is lost forever. It cannot be accounted for, if this is true PDAF, or “pork barrel,” is a discretionary fund distributed to members of the Senate and the House of Representatives to fund local projects. — With Wendell Vigilia
