THE Senate Blue Ribbon committee yesterday cited Michael Yang, former presidential economic adviser, in contempt for skipping the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing twice despite the issuance of a subpoena.
Sen. Richard Gordon, Blue Ribbon committee chair, approved the motions of his colleagues to cite in contempt Yang, also known as Yang Hong Ming, and said that a warrant for his arrest will also be issued to compel the former presidential adviser to attend the hearing,
Gordon also approved the issuance of warrants of arrest against officers of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation for their failure to attend the hearings. They were identified as Mohit Dargani, Twinkle Dargani, Linconn Ong, Krizle Grace Mago, and Justine Garado.
Gordon said the subpoena for Yang was served twice, first on September 2 in his known office address and the second on September 3 at his residence in South Forbes Park in Makati City, but Gordon’s staff members were told that there is no Michael Yang living in the said address.
Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon said he has a copy of Yang’s lease contract at house number 19 Narra street, South Forbes Park, Makati City. It was leased by Yang for P500,000 a month from April 2017 to April 2022.
Since Yang has skipped the Blue Ribbon hearings twice, Senators Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan, and Drilon said Yang should be cited in contempt.
Pangilinan also moved that the five Pharmally officers be issued warrants of arrest for their failure to attend the Senate investigation.
Lawyer Raymund Fortun, legal counsel of Yang, said his client was not able to receive the subpoenas sent by the committee, but assured that Yang will cooperate fully with the investigation.
“Mr. Yang apologizes for his absence at today’s (Tuesday’s) hearing but gives his assurance to be present at the next scheduled hearing of the committee,” Fortun said in a letter to Gordon.
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee initially investigated the alleged mismanaged P67-billion pandemic response funds of the Department of Health but later shifted the probe on the P42 billion transferred by the DOH to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) for alleging buying overpriced medical supplies.
Senators were compelled to did deeper into the issue after they found out at the purchase of overpriced medical supplies all happened under former PS-DBM head Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao, ho was said to be known to be close to Sen. Christopher Go. Go has already denied links with Lao.
Meanwhile, Huang Tzu Yen, chief executive officer of Pharmaceutical Corporation, virtually attended the Blue Ribbon hearing from his home in Singapore.
Senators were not able to ask Huang questions about the the alleged overpriced face masks, face shields, and personal protective equipment since Gordon said Huang needs to take his oath at the Philippine embassy in Singapore for him to be under the country’s jurisdiction.
Gordon, however, asked Huang if the news reports were true that he has an arrest warrant in Taiwan for stock manipulation.
“I have only received news of this supposed warrant of arrest from my online searches. I have contacted attorneys with understanding of this since June. I have not received a reply as of today,” Huang said.
Hontiveros said Huang can easily view the warrant of arrest against him at Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice website as it has been posted since last year.
Huang said: “I was only made aware of this…in March 2021. I am waiting for a formal subpoena to be issued to me, in relation to this and I have not received any,” he added.
Gordon then asked Huang on the whereabouts of his father, Huang Wen Lei, who is allegedly wanted in Taiwan for securities fraud, stock manipulation, and embezzlement. The elder Huang is also connected with Pharmally.
“I do not know where my father is since…we have been estranged since early 2020,” Huang said.
Huang said his father “disappeared.”
Senators took interest to investigate Pharmally since it is company put up only in 2019 with a paid-up capital of P625,000 but was awarded more than P8.6 billion worth of contracts from the PS-DBM for the purchase of medical supplies for the DOH.
COMMON SUPPLIES
Pangilinan asked the PS-DBM why it bought face shields when it is not included in the list of “common use supplies” approved by the Government Procurement Policy Board.
He noted the Philippines is the only country in the world which requires its citizens to wear face shields.
“Who is this influential supplier who was able to insert face shields in he procurement list when it is not in the common use list and is also not required by the WHO (World Health Organization)? ” Pangilinan said in Filipino.
Carlito Galvez, chief of the National Task Force against COVID-19, said the use of face shields was a recommendation made by the Inter Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
“That’s an IATF resolution that we will require the face shield. We included that in our procurement, we included that in the IATF resolution that face shields are included in our minimum health standards,” Galvez said.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said aside from the IATF, several local medical experts have also recommended the use of face shields as an added layer of protection, on top of face masks, social distancing, and frequent handwashing.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said he could not help but think that the wearing face shields was made mandatory so that those bought by the PS-DBM-bought can be disposed of.
Gordon said the PS-DBM bought 1,317,711 pieces of face shields from Philippine Blue Cross Biotech Corp. priced at P13 each.
Sotto said the DOH and IATF should have also sought the advise of engineers since a person can easily be infected with COVID-19 due to the configuration of face shields.
“Hindi niyo kami masisisi na kayo lang ang gumawa niya (rule on mandatory wearing of face shields). Pangalawa, isang tambak pala ang binili niyo. Bakit hindi kami mag-iisip na kaya niyo pinipilit eh para magamit na at napakarami niyong binili, hindi ba? (You cannot blame us to think that it is only you which made that rule on mandatory use of face shields.
Second, you purchased millions of face shields. Maybe that is the reason why you are forcing us to wear one so your inventory can be used, isn’t it ?” he added.
A lot of senators were not able to ask questions from resource persons due to time constraints even as Sotto called their session to order at 4 p.m., an hour later the usual 3 p.m. start of their session.
Gordon scheduled the next hearing on Friday.
