Businesswoman Rose Nono Lin should appear in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s next hearing into Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation’s questionable transaction with the government on COVID-19 pandemic supplies and shed light about her role in the negotiations, Senator Richard Gordon said.
During the 17th hearing of the Senate blue ribbon panel, Gordon accused Nono Lin, a congressional aspirant in Quezon City, of lying after the latter failed to appear during the Senate probe last Dec. 21.
Lin submitted a letter saying she was in Guimaras to help in the typhoon recovery but Gordon noted there were no flights to the area yet at the time the hearing was held. Gordon also said there were news reports pointing out that Lin was in Quezon City conducting a choir contest on the same day of the hearing.
“You can run but you cannot hide! We should have been done with the hearings, but new evidence are being submitted. Even the LRA (Land Registration Authority (LRA) has also submitted documents,” Gordon said.
During her last participation in the hearing, Nono Lin denied she is associated with Pharmally Pharmaceutical, insisting that her company Pharmally Biological, was separate and different from the pharmaceutical firm.
However, in both companies, Huang Tzu Yen of Pharmally International is a board director, linking both to the defunct mother company in Taiwan.
During the hearing, Gordon presented a document from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) showing that Lin Weixiong, Nono Lin’s husband, is the financial manager of Pharmally Pharmaceutical. Asked about the document, Mojit Dargani, Pharmally’s corporate secretary and treasurer, and Yen, confirmed the veracity of the document.
According to Yen, Lin was designated as financial manager of the company to guarantee the financing that Michael Yang provided to the company. Based on their investigation, Gordon pointed to Yang as the one who introduced the company to President Duterte.
Duterte has repeatedly defended Yang, his former presidential economic adviser, from the Senate panel’s probe.
But Gordon lamented that the story of Pharmally is a litany of lies perpetrated on the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“All these people are lying, it’s a train wreck of lies. But the trth is coming out. Now we know that Lin Weixiong is the financial manager of Pharmally!” the senator stressed.
During the last hearing, Gordon also sought the capture of Jayson Uson and Gerald Cruz, whom he said are also partners with Nono Lin in the other companies of Michael Yang and Lin Wiexiong.
He also renewed his call for the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to conduct an investigation on the billions of funds paid to Pharmally. This, he said, is separate from the BIR probe already being conducted on the possible tax evasion committed by Pharmally officials, Yang, Nono Lin and her husband Weixiong.
The hearings on Pharmally probe will resume in January upon the resumption of the Senate’s regular sessions.