BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR and RAYMOND AFRICA
PRESIDENT Duterte said senators should just continue their investigations into government’s purchase of medical supplies after Christmas, or even after the May 2022 elections, so his Cabinet secretaries can focus on their jobs of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday night during his weekly “Talk to the People” address, Duterte also said he has signed a memorandum ordering members of the executive department not to attend the hearings of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, which is looking into alleged anomalies related to the government’s grant of billions of supply contracts last year to Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation which had a paid-up capital of less a million pesos.
The memorandum, signed on October 4, “directed all officials and employees of the Executive Department to no longer appear before or attend the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings on the 2020 Commission on Audit Report effective immediately,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said yesterday.
Committee chairman Sen. Richard Gordon said the memorandum is “totally unconstitutional” as no “national security, national security, executive privilege” issues are being discussed in the Blue Ribbon inquiry. He was referring to Senate vs. Ermita (G. R. 169777, April 20, 2006) in which the Supreme Court ruled that if Congress requires the appearance of government officials in inquiries held in aid of legislation, their attendance is mandatory.
“You are violating the Constitution… We (Senate) are a co-equal branch of government and we have the right and the duty to find out the truth,” Gordon said at the opening of the panel’s 11th hearing on irregular contracts awarded by the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) to Pharmally.
He slammed Duterte for preventing his officials from appearing before the Senate panel while allowing them to attend similar hearings at the House.
“Ayaw padaluhin sa Senate Blue Ribbon hearing sa Pharmally investigation, pero pwede umattend sa Mababang Kapulungan? Mukhang mayroong pinagtatakpang mandarambong ((He bars them from attending the Senate Blue Ribbon hearings on the Pharmally investigation but allows them to attend the hearings of the House of Representatives. He appears to be covering up for plunderers),” he added.
Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon said it is time the Senate leadership or the Senate Blue Ribbon committee ask the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of Duterte’s memorandum.
Among invited officials who skipped the Blue Ribbon hearing yesterday were Commission on Audit chairman Michael Aguinaldo, Internal Revenue Commissioner Cesar Dulay, and division heads.
The Philippine Bar Association said the memo violates the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers and is “detrimental” to public accountability, especially on the use of government funds amid the pandemic.
“That the ongoing investigation focuses on alleged anomalies in the use of huge amounts of public funds, during a pandemic that has cost countless Filipino lives, makes the quest of public accountability of vital importance,” the group said in a statement.
The group also said the power of legislative inquiry is expressly recognized in Section 21, Article VI of the Constitution and in rulings of the Supreme Court, particularly in the case of Senate of the Philippines vs Eduardo Ermita et al, issued in April 2006 where the High Court ruled that such exercise of Executive power is unconstitutional.
In case of abuses committed during Senate hearings, the group said the SC has ruled that the proper remedy is for the individual whose rights were violated to file cases.
The PBA, the oldest voluntary national organization of lawyers in the country, asked Duterte, a lawyer, to recall his directive.
RESPECT
Duterte, on Monday night, said the senators are not giving due respect to his Cabinet officials and even wasting their time by summoning them for hearings where they sometimes end up not being asked at all.
He again took a swipe at Gordon, saying the Senate is not a court and that Gordon is “not god and you cannot play god.”
Duterte thanked the House of Representatives “for conducting a neutral and unbiased hearing” and for terminating their proceedings early.
A Pharmally executive who recanted her testimony against her company, is now under the custody of the House, days after she disappeared after telling the Senate Pharmally swindled the government.
Linconn Ong, Pharmally director who is under Senate detention, said he would no longer participate in the committee hearings.
Ong invoked the company’s confidentiality under the Corporation Code, said Rodolfo Quimbo, Blue Ribbon committee oversight office management director general.
“Mr. Ong, so far as the documents are concerned, stated that he is not participating anymore in this proceeding nor he is transmitting anything, reiterating their supposed rights under the corporation’s code on confidentiality,” Quimbo said at the start of the hearing.
Ong has been under the committee’s custody since last week after he refused to speak before an executive session on their company’s alleged anomalous transactions with the government.
Drilon said Ong cannot invoke the company’s rights under the Corporation Code because there is nothing in the Code will justify non-participation in the inquiries.
Twinkle Dargani, another Pharmally official, was a no-show yesterday as she reportedly experienced “panic attack,” as reported by Don Rico Kapunan, her lawyer.
Krizle Grace Mago, one of the firm’s incorporators, was virtually present in the hearing but was not asked any question after she recanted her testimony during a House hearing last Monday.
Gordon scored Mago for giving senators the runaround when she was reported to have been incommunicado until the time when she surfaced.
“You even deceived us that you would soon re-appear because you were safe. You even thanked us because we are concerned for your safety. However, you chose to stay with Pharmally and its allies,” Gordon said in mixed English and Filipino.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson shot down Mago’s claim before the House that her testimony before the Senate was a “pressured response,” showing a short video clip of Mago during the September 24 hearing.
“You be the judge, Mr. Chairman, if that was pressured response and if she was bullied by this representation when she admitted that Mr. Mohit Dargani gave her the instructions to have the stickers changed,” Lacson said.
Lacson took exception to President Duterte’s insinuation that the Senate is a criminal court involved in with-hunt.
“The Senate never claimed to be a criminal court. We investigate in aid of legislation as we had always done in the past which resulted in some meaningful laws like the amended Anti-Hazing Law and many more meaningful legislation,” he said. — With Ashzel Hachero
