PRESIDENT Duterte on Tuesday night said executives of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., which bagged government contracts for medical supplies in the fight against COVID-19, should be imprisoned if they did not pay taxes.
The President, in his Talk to the People address, reiterated he does not care what happens to the executives of the private company which is being investigated by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee for alleged overpriced medical supplies bought by the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and management.
A Chinese businessman appointed by Duterte as economic adviser is suspected by senators to be the company’s financier.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who has presented witnesses on alleged irregularities committed by Pharmally, said of Duterte’s latest statement, “It’s great that the President has finally stopped protecting Pharmally. The next step is to also stop protecting his own officials and cronies who may have assisted Pharmally or benefited from its irregularities.”
Duterte reiterated that what he is concerned about is the committee calling Cabinet and other members of the government to hearings.
“Iyong sabi nilang Pharmally hindi bumabayad, ay ikulong ninyo ‘yan. Gusto niyo patayin pa ninyo. Wala, wala kaming pakialam. Kapag hindi nagbayad ng taxes, kriminal iyan (They say Pharmally is not paying taxes, jail them. You can even kill them if you want. We don’t care. If they failed to pay their tax dues, they are criminals),” he said.
A Senate inquiry in the government’s COVID-19 pandemic-related purchases revealed that some Pharmally officials failed to file their income tax returns while others filed unreadable or incomplete data.
During a hearing last week, a tax expert told the Blue Ribbon that Pharmally, which had a paid-up capital of only P625,000 last year when it got billions in contracts, has some P3.4 billion worth of undocumented purchases which could have been intentionally done so the company will have to pay lower income tax.
At the 14th hearing, tax expert Mon Abrea said based on his examination of financial records submitted by Pharmally to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the company declared purchases of P7.2 billion but only some P3.8 billion have supporting documents. He also said Pharmally needs to clarify its claim that it paid P95 million in income taxes but has actually paid only P21 million.
Duterte has been saying he is not lawyering for Pharmally. He has also ordered his Cabinet members to refrain from appearing in Senate hearings as their appearance disrupts their work.
He named Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. who are at the forefront of the government campaign against COVID-19.
