THE Senate Blue Ribbon committee has recommended the filing of charges against key public and private individuals involved in the multi-billion mess involving Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation and the government.
This is contained in the committee’s partial committee report dated January 31 and released to the media yesterday.
“The nation has been betrayed. While millions are unemployed, have become poorer and hungrier, are desperate even for just a glimmer of hope, what this administration has done is to exacerbate the already execrable and hopeless state the people are all in. None can be more unforgivable,” said the report of the committee chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon.
The committee said it was clear that those involved in the mess “violated the law in illegally favoring an underfunded and unqualified supplier.”
The Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) gave billions in contracts for the supply of pandemic items to Pharmally in 2020 when it had a paid-up capital of only P625,000.
The committee identified the officials as Lloyd Christopher Lao, former PS-DBM head who has a standing warrant of arrest from the committee for his continued refusal to cooperate with the investigation, and lawyer Warren Rex Liong, Lao’s subordinate at the PS-DBM, and Pharmally officials including Huang Tze Yen, Mohit Dargani, Twinkle Dargani, Linconn Ong, Krizle Grace Mago, Gerald Cruz, Rose Nono Lin, Lin Weixiong, and Michael Yan.
The committee recommended that Chinese businessman Michael Yang and a certain Qing Jin Ke be deported. Yang is a former economic adviser of President Duterte, who senators believe to be Pharmally’s financier.
The Blue Ribbon said President Duterte “betrayed public trust” by appointing Yang, who is a foreigner, as adviser for economic affairs, and for accepting an undercapitalized corporation owned by a Taiwanese fugitive with proven ties to Michael Yang to dominate over pandemic supplies purchases.
Recommended charged for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act are Lao, Liong, Dickson Panti, Linconn Ong, Mohit Dargani, Twinkle Dargani, Krizle Grace Mago, Huang Tzu Yen, Michael Yang aka Yang Hong Ming, Lin Weixiong, and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
For violation of the plunder law, recommended charged were Lao, Liong, Ong, the Dargani siblings, Mago, Huang, Yang Lin, and Duque, while Mago and Mohit Dargani were recommended charged with estafa.
Charges under Fraud Against the Public Treasury and Similar Offenses were recommended for Lao and Liong; perjury/false testimony for Yang, Ong, Mago, Mohit Dargani, and Rose Nono Lin; with falsification of public documents for Liong, Jorge Mendoza and Mervin Ian Tanquintic; violation of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act for Yang, Lin Weixiong, Ong, Mohit Dargani, and Mago; disobedience to summons for Ong, Mohit Dargani, and Yang; violation of the Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for Huang, the Dargani siblings, Ong, Mago, and Lin Weixiong; and violation of the Government Procurement Act for Lao, Liong, Huang, the Dargani siblings, Ong, Mago, and Lin Weixiong.
BETRAYAL
The Blue Ribbon said Duterte betrayed public trust when he tried “to discredit” the Commission on Audit and discredit the credibility of the Senate “by publicly attacking, maligning, and disrespecting the Senate as an institution, a co-equal branch of government, and its members duly performing their duties.”
Also, Duterte betrayed public trust after he issued a memorandum preventing his Cabinet members and other officials from attending committee hearings, and refused to run after his appointees involved in the mess.
“The most troubling question remains — why was the President so quick to defend those closest to him once their names were linked to the anomaly and then so eager to discredit the Senate investigation, prevent his appointees from cooperating, and absolve them of any liability?” the panel added.
The committee started its hearing on August last year on the billions of pesos transferred by the Department of Health to the PS-DBM for the purchase of pandemic supplies.
The PS-DBM tapped Pharmally to supply the government some P10 billion worth of pandemic items which later turned out to be overpriced.
The committee has arrested Ong and the Dargani siblings for non-cooperation in the hearings. Twinkle Dargani was released from detention last month, while Mohit and Ong are still locked up at the Pasay City Jail
Also ordered arrested by the committee were Rose Nono Lin, Dennis Manalastas, Gerald Cruz, Jayson Uson, and Sophia Custodio.
According to the panel, Uson is the president of Filipinas 168 Shopping Mall with interests in the Yangtze Group Trade and DCLA Plaza which reportedly have links to Michael Yang.
Cruz is a stockholder of Filipinas 168 Shopping Mall who also has links to the Yangtze Group Trade and the DCLA Plaza.
Uson and Cruz are reportedly accomplices in the Pharmally deal.
Manalastas is being sought to shed light on the issue of purchase of test kits by the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management as his name came out in a number of communications between PS-DBM and BGI Schenzen as a representative of Philippine United Technic Corporation.
Custodio, girlfriend of Mohit Dargani, is also being invited after it was found out that her company Business Beyond Limits OPC, which was incorporated only on June 2020, was also able to corner a P10-million deal in June 2021 to supply two million face shields to the Department of Health.
