The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) should now act to freeze the assets of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp.’s executives following revelations in the ongoing Senate investigation into the P11.5-billion worth of questionable contracts with the Duterte government, Senator Leila de Lima said.
“Like everyone else, I was shocked by the parade of Lamborghinis, Porsches, and Lexuses owned by the directors of Pharmally who apparently went wild on a luxury car buying-spree after receiving their P8.7-billion windfall from selling overpriced PPEs (personal protective equipment), masks, and face shields to the government,” De Lima said in her statement on Saturday.
“Kulang na lang yung Maserati ni ex-DBM Usec. Lloyd Christopher Lao kumpleto na sana (Unfortunately, we could not include the Maserati of ex-DBM Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao. We could have completed it),” she said, referring to the former head of the Department of Budget and Management’s procurement services (DBM-PS).
De Lima said there is an urgent need to freeze the assets “of all these soulless monsters before they all fly away to the Carribean with their plundered loot.”
“The AMLC should immediately apply for a freeze order and initiate civil forfeiture proceedings against these shameless profiteers,” she said.
De Lima said it was clear that from the start, Michael Yang, the former presidential economic adviser of Duterte, merely used “sweet talk” as capital.
“Alam naman nating laway lang ang puhunan ng mga ito, lalo na ang laway ni Michael Yang na tila ba napakatamis para kay Duterte at siya pa ang tumatayong abogado para sa kanila (They only used mere talk as capital, especially Michael Yang, that it seemed so sweet for Duterte he even acted as lawyer for these people),” the vocal Duterte critic stressed.
“Alam naman nating si Michael Yang lang at ang kanyang koneksyon kay Duterte ang dahilan kung bakit nakorner ng mga ito ang bilyon-bilyon na kontrata sa gobyerno (And we all know Yang used his connection with Duterte to be able to corner billions of contract with the government),” she lamented.
“So that is where our Bayanihan 2 funds went. Ginamit na pambili ng mga (it was used to buy) Porsche at Lamborghini, habang namamatay sa gutom at COVID ang ating mga kababayan (while our people are dying of hunger and COVID-19),” she emphasized.
“That Lamborghini, that Porsche, that Lexus, are the people’s money. That is our money. And these greedy monsters have no conscience whatsoever using our money to feed their boundless sociopathic need for material wealth at the expense of dying Filipinos in the midst of the COVID-19 catastrophe. They deserve to burn in hell,” she stressed.
Duterte has been making public rants and threats against members of the Senate who initiated a probe into the alleged overpriced PPEs procured by the government which has been flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA).
Sen. Richard Gordon, who chairs the Senate blue ribbon committee, in particular has been targeted by the President in his speeches, along with Senators Panfilo Lacson and Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon.
The senators, however, are standing pat on their decision to pursue unearthing more evidences of anomalies regarding the multi-billion procurement and the questionable contracts cornered by Pharmally executives.