Will the alleged scam on the government's procurement of COVID-19 supplies reach Malacañang? "Yes."
This was the answer by Senator Richard J, Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, when asked Wednesday, September 29, on whether Malacañang used the baton to signal a supposed multi-billion-peso scam in the award of billions of pesos worth of COVID 19-related medical supplies.
In an interview with One News, Gordon said he ‘’could soft-pedal it’’ but could not because the connection from the top to the ground was "clear".
Like an opera, Gordon said there was a conductor that used the baton ‘’with the help of his Chinese friends’’ and ‘’that is the problem.’’
Gordon had, among others, accused President Duterte of lawyering for Michael Yang, his former economic adviser.
Yang denied the statement of Linconn Ong, director of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, that he financially helped the firm so that it could eventually bag as much as P11 billion in medical supplies through contracts awarded by Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).
Gordon said there was a powerful figure that ordered the Department of Health (DOH) to transfer its P42 billion response funds to COVID-related programs to PS-DBM whose chief, Lloyd Christopher Lao, is from Davao like the President and Yang.
Malacañang had insinuated that the probe by Gordon was politically motivated.
On a question whether he might choose to run for the presidency or see his committee investigations through, Gordon replied: ‘’It can be both.’’
He said he might make a decision whether or not he would seek the presidency on October 8.
Gordon said his committee has already analyzed from the beginning the mazes that the scandal had ran through and their hunt is to recover the billions of pesos paid for the intrinsic overpricing done in the PS-DBM contracts from March last year to 2021.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon had described what transpired at PS-DBM as a ‘’premeditated plunder.’’
‘’Ibalik sa tao ang ninakaw nila (the stolen money must be returned to the people,’’ Gordon stressed.