ADMINISTRATION ally Sen. Francis Tolentino yesterday said President Duterte should stop defending his “friends” who have been named in the ongoing Senate investigation into the controversial multi-billion-peso pandemic supply contracts of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation with the government.
“If given a chance to advise, I would probably tell him that he already made his point, (so) just let the investigation proceed. And he can probably refrain from defending persons he could probably term as friends,” Tolentino, who was formerly President Duterte’s Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chief, told ABS-CBN New Channel in an interview.
Citing the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution, Tolentino said the executive and legislative branches should respect one another.
President Duterte has been giving the Senate and Sen. Richard Gordon, the chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, an earful for looking into Pharmally’s transactions with the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service for the government’s supply of face shields and PPEs.
He has defended government officials that were linked to the controversy, particularly former Budget Undersecretary Christopher Lloyd Lao and former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang, and has even barred executive officials and employees from attending the Senate hearing without his permission.
Also as an offshoot of his word war with Gordon, the President has even called for an audit of the Philippine Red Cross, a private institution which is chaired by the senator.
Tolentino likewise contradicted Duterte’s insistence that the Senate should stop looking into the Pharmally issue, as he said that the Senate committee’s investigation into the controversy should continue.
Despite his statements, however, Tolentino said Duterte’s defense of his friends should not be misconstrued as “tolerance of corruption,” but rather a measure of how he values the friendships that he has.
“One thing that struck my attention was that the President is used to defending people close to him, his friends. So, this is human nature,” he said.
BRIBED?
Meanwhile, Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation yesterday accused Sen. Risa Hontiveros of allegedly bribing their former warehouseman who testified last week in the Senate inquiry on the alleged substandard face shields sold by the company to the government.
In a statement, Pharmally mentioned a video presented by lawyer Ferdinand Topacio in a press briefing, which showed another warehouse staff claiming that Hontiveros’ staff, identified as lawyer Jake Bekema, allegedly bribed his former co-worker whom he identified as “V-Jay” in exchange for his testimony in the Senate investigation.
Topacio is the lawyer of detained Pharmally director Linconn Ong.
The statement quoted a warehouseman, who was also in the video, saying that it was supposedly the driver of Hontiveros staff who gave the money to V-Jay.
“Nabayaran siya para siraan si Ms. Mago at Pharmally (He was paid to launch accusations against Ms. Mago and Pharmally),” he said, referring to Pharmally official Krizle Grace Mago who admitted to the Senate that the company tampered with the expiration dates of the face shields sold to the government.
Mago, who has made herself scarce since dropping her bombshell, has testified that this was upon the order of Pharmally corporate treasurer and secretary Mohit Dargani, who denied her accusations during the same hearing.
The Pharmally employee who was seen on the video presented by Topacio said they can prove that they do not repack substandard face shields, contrary to the claim of Hontiveros’ witness.
“Dun po mismo ako nagtatrabaho sa warehouse at alam ko po ‘yung ginagawa namin ay tama at walang nangyayaring anomalya (I am working inside the warehouse and I know that what we are doing is right and there are no anomalies that are happening),” he said.
He also denied Mago’s claim that the face shields were tampered.
In a statement, Hontiveros denied the claim that she bribed the former Pharmally warehouseman who had testified in the Senate.
She said it was the former staff who reached out to her office. “First, it was the witness who reached out to us. We have an e-mail thread to prove this. Like always, may resibo ako (I have a receipt). We vetted the information of the witness for weeks and obtained independent corroboration of his points,” Hontiveros said.
“Second, in her testimony at the Senate, it was Ms. Mago who admitted swindling the government through their deliveries. That was unrehearsed testimony. It is on the record. That’s why they should not even try
to divert the issue,’ she added.
Hontiveros also said she has no track record of tampering or bribing a witness, unlike Topacio whom she recalled barged into her office in 2017 to try to bring out the witness who testified on the killing of Kian de los Santos by members of the Caloocan police.
“Third, we do not have any track record of witness tampering and witness bribery. We took good care of our witnesses and whistleblower starting from Ivy, the Taiwanese national who was a victim of illegal recruitment for the POGO industry, to Alex Chiong and Dale Ignacio.
That’s the reason why they opted to trust my office with their testimonies. We never fail them,” she said, adding that Topacio has no track record that he ever fought for truth and justice.
Hontiveros said she will face all possible cases that might be filed against her in relation to the bribery allegation.
“Atty. Topacio, you cannot fool the public. Just like the expired and substandard face shields of Pharmally, your script, Atty. Topacio is already stale,” she said.
