Senator Christopher ‘’Bong’’ Go on Thursday, August 19 strongly denied reports that former Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao of the Procurement Services-Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) linked to alleged overpricing of billions of pesos worth of face masks and face shields for the Department of Health (DOH) was his aide.

‘’To call him such is inaccurate,’’ Go, chairman of the Senate Health committee, said as he stressed that he would attend next week’s Senate Blue Ribbon committee public hearing on the questionable handling by the DOH of P67.3 billion for his COVID-19 response program.

‘’He (Lao) was a volunteer election lawyer of President Duterte in 2016 and was appointed to the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) at the start of the term until early 2017. After which he was appointed to HLURB (Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board) and later to the DBM in 2019 before resigning last June of this year. Lao did not directly report to me nor did he ever serve as my aide,’’ he said.

Go stressed that he already assumed his post in July 2019 as an elected senator when Lao was designated to head the PS-DBM in August 2019.

‘’As a legislator and member of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, I support the efforts to probe how public funds were spent in our country’s COVID-19 response,’’ he said.

‘’Kung kailangang busisiin pa ang mga naging procurement ng PS-DBM na saklaw ng COA initial findings, by all means, silipin natin upang lumabas ang katotohanan (If need be, let us investigate the procurement by PS-DBM which was included in the Commission on Audit (COA) findings). Kung kailangang ipatawag si Lao sa susunod na mga pagdinig, gawin natin upang magkaroon ng kaliwanagan, once and for all (If Lao has to be called, let us do it to provide clarity, once and for all),’’ he added.

"Let me reiterate that my position against graft and corruption has been firm and consistent — President Duterte and I will never tolerate any form of it,’’ he stressed.