Senator Risa Hontiveros on Friday, Oct. 22 said executives of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation should just produce the documents the Senate blue ribbon committee has ordered subpoenaed.
Hontiveros issued the remark after Mohit Dargani, Pharmally’s corporate secretary and treasurer released a statemet criticizing the blue ribbon panel, chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon, for treating the company’s officials like “criminals whose lives aren’t worthy of living anymore.”
Mohit Dargani and his sister, Twinkle, Pharmally’s president have been cited for contempt by the Senate and ordered detained at the Senate. However, the Office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms (OSAA) has yet to find the whereabouts of the siblings.
“Sa haba ng itinakbo ng mga hearing, hindi pa rin nakukumpleto ng Pharmally ang mga dokumentong hinihingi ng Senado (the hearing has been going on for some time, and yet Pharmally has yet to complete the documents being asked by the Senate),” Hontiveros said in a statement.
“What we have been asking for are basic documentary records of their transactions. These are documents that they are required to maintain for tax purposes. So where are they?” she pointed out.
If Pharmally can't document the cost of goods sold, Hontiveros surmised Pharmally could be liable for several billion pesos in tax deficiency.
“Base sa mga naihaing ebidensya sa senado, dapat na silang iaudit ng BIR (Based on the evidence presented before the Senate, they should be audited by the Bureau of Internal Revenue),” the senator stressed.
Hontiveros said Dargani, and all the other resource persons in the Senate’s probe into the alleged anomalous procurement of COVID-19 pandemic supplies, should be reminded that they are under oath.
“Kapag pabago-bago at hindi nagtutugma ang mga kwento nila (If their statements frequentl changes and their stories do not match), they are disrespecting the Blue Ribbon Committee and the Filipino people,” she said.
“The Chairman is within his power to hold them in contempt, and I fully support the committee’s efforts to find the Dargani siblings,” the lawmaker emphasized.