Senator Richard Gordon on Thursday, Nov. 4 criticized a Senate colleague for complaining about the lengthy hearings of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on the alleged overpriced medical supplies that the government bought from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp.

Though he didn’t name names, Gordon scored the fellow senator for accusing the committee of deliberately prolonging the hearings and calling the Senate’s further investigation “very unnecessary.”

"Ang sinasabi ng isang kasama natin sa Senado na may katagalan na raw ‘yung hearing. Nagmamadali siya (Our colleague here in the Senate is complaining that the hearing is already drawn-out. He’s in a hurry),” Gordon said during the Senate panel’s 14th hearing into the controversy.

“Eh dalawang beses lang pong umattend ‘yung ating kasama at kaibigan ko pa. Pero kung nag-aatend siya, marami siyang matututunan dito at malalaman, at ‘yan ay pandagdag sa kanyang kakayahan at experience (Yet our colleague and my friend only attended the hearing twice. But if he attended, he would have learned so much from this and known a lot of things, and that can add to his capability and experience),” Gordon pointed out.

Last Tuesday, Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, in a televised interview, urged the Senate blue ribbon committee to wrap up its hearings and come up with a committee report and file the necessary charges against those allegedly involved in the transactions with the Department of Budget and Management’s Procurement Service (DBM-PS) over the COVID-19 pandemic supplies.

Dela Rosa, who is eyeing the presidency in next year’s elections, maintained he believes in the Commission on Audit (COA) clarification that there was nothing anomalous in the DBM-PS’s awarding of the P8-billion worth of contract with Pharmally, an undercapitalized company.

A known ally of the Duterte administration, Dela Rosa also pointed out that the same people have kept on asking the same questions. Records show that Dela Rosa only attended the September 7 and 13 Pharmally hearings.

Gordon also said President Duterte should be blamed for the delays in the Senate proceedings, since he has barred Cabinet officials from participating in the investigation.

“Pinapaalam ko lang po sa mga mamamayan natin na talagang kung may delay (sa imbestigasyon) ang may kasalanan po ay ang Pangulo ng Pilipinas, hindi po tayo (I just want to remind the public that if there is a cause of the delay in this invesetigation, it is the fault of the President of the Philippines, not us),” Gordon stressed.

“He refuses to send them (Cabinet officials) to us with no valid reason. We are almost ready to file something to the Supreme Court to question the order of the President,” he said.

The blue ribbon committee had ordered the arrest of the siblings Mohit and Twinkle Dargani, who are both top executives of Pharmally, after they refused to submit to the panel documents being asked of them by the senators.

The Senate Office of the Sergeant at Arms (OSAA) reported during the hearing that they still cannot locate the Darganis and they remain at large.