Senator Richard Gordon said it was very clear that President Duterte is at the center of the “grand conspiracy” to defraud the government of billions of pesos at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Gordon made the remark when he released the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s initial findings on its investigation into the questionable contract between Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. and the Department of Budget and Management’s Procurement Service (DBM-PS) last Tuesday, October 19.

“It is clear and categorical to us that this grand conspiracy could never have happened without the imprimatur of the President,” Gordon said during the 12th hearing of the panel which he chairs.

“The President allowed his friends to bleed this nation’s coffers dry,” Gordon further said.

In its preliminary report, the blue ribbon panel recommended charges be filed agianst Duterte’s former state economic adviser, Michael Yang, executives of Pharmally and some government officials.

During the course of the hearings, Pharmally officials disclosed that Yang had helped finance the undercapitalized Pharmally to help it comply with some of the government’s requirements last year.

Yang has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying he only helped introduce Ong to his friends among suppliers in China.

Gordon noted how Duterte has staunchly defended Yang and officials of Pharmally against the Senate’s probe and lambasted and threatened senators for their continued investigation on the P8.6-billion contract bagged by Pharmally for the procurement of alleged overpriced and substandard COVID-19 supplies.

Gordon, himself, has been the target of the Chief Executive’s verbal attacks and threats.

“Pag-isipan natin ito ng maigi: ang ating foreign policy, ang ating (Let’s carefully think about it. Our foreign policy and) pivot towards China was determined by a Chnese national because Yang was an intimate friend of the president and was granted access even into the deepest recesses of the corridors of power,” Gordon pointed out.

Gordon also said that in the panel’s partial investigation report, it is clear there was “unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference or favoritism” for Pharmally, which is one of the “29 other firms that bagged 42 percent of the P65-billion pandemic supply contracts” from the government.

“Our inquiry in aid of legislation reveals unconscionable, unabashed, and unethical circumventions of our republican way of governance. Na diskurbe po nating inuna ang kumita at makakuha ng kumisyon, o (we discovered there were people who prioritized earnings, getting commissions and) kickbacks, instead of coming up with the right way to quell the pandemic,” he said.

“Ito po ang dahilan kaya minarapat po ng kumite na ituloy ang imbestigasyon (This is the reason why the committee has decided to continue the investigation). The road is long, but we will finish it and we will finish it right,” Gordon reiterated.