SENATE Blue Ribbon committee chairman Richard Gordon yesterday turned down requests of two detained officials of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation for them to be released from the Pasay City Jail because they have not been charged of any crime and that the committee chairman just used the series of hearings on government’s deal with the company for his re-election bid.
In an undated letter, Mohit Dargani, Pharmally secretary, and Linconn Ong, director, asked anew Senate President Vicente Sotto III to order their release, saying they were unjustly detained.
“We’ve been suffering in Pasay City Jail alongside convicted criminals for close to a year dahil lamang sa kagustuhan ni Senator Richard ‘Dick’ Gordon. Wala po kaming kaso (only because Senator Gordon wants to. We have no criminal cases),” Dargani and Ong said.
“He used us for his political ambitions. Di na niya maibabalik ang buhay at reputasyon namin na inagaw niya sa amin (He [Gordon] cannot bring back our lost lives and reputation which he took away from us),” they added.
Ong has been under the custody of the Senate since September last year and was later transferred to the Pasay City Jail in November, while Dargani was arrested in November with his sister Twinkle, who is Pharmally president, at the Davao International Airport while attempting to leave for Malaysia.
Mohit and Ong were later transferred to the Pasay City Jail, while Twinkle was later freed for humanitarian reasons.
Mohit and Ong were detained after they were cited in contempt by the Senate committee for their continued refusal to cooperate in the investigations in the more than P40-billion Department of Health pandemic response funds transferred to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) for the latter to purchase pandemic supplies.
The PS-DBM awarded more than P11 billion to Pharmally even if it has only P625,000 capital. Pharmally sold the overpriced pandemic supplies to the government.
Gordon said Mohit and Ong have been given the chance to be released from detention on the condition they will present to the panel financial documents of Pharmally needed in the committee investigations.
“However, when the day came for them to be released, they sent word that those documents did not exist,” Gordon said.
He said it is also not a surprise that Mohit and Ong will ask Sotto to order for their release because “some fellow senators, high-ranking officials and even persons close to me” have lobbied for their release.
