The House Committee on Good Government on Monday, Sept. 27 voted unanimously to subpoena Krizle Mago, regulatory affairs chief of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, after failing to testify during its inquiry into the reported overpricing of personal protective gears and other anti-COVID-19 medical supplies procured by government.

During the hearing, committee chairman and DIWA Partylist Rep. Michael Aglipay also revealed that he will request in writing for the Senate to allow Pharmally Director Linconn Ong to attend the next virtual hearing to be held October 4.

Ong is being held at the Pasay City police station upon orders of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that cited him in contempt for failing to answer questions raised by senator members.

“Since Senate is a co-equal body and has custody of Linconn Ong at the Pasay City jail, I would extend that courtesy to the Senate. I direct the committee secretary to write a letter (to the Senate) to produce Ong via zoom (conference),” said Aglipay.

The partylist solon said he expects the Blue Ribbon panel to extend the same respect he will demonstrate by granting his request for Ong’s attendance on Oct. 4.

Noting that Mago has been “in hiding”, Aglipay agreed to the proposal that a subpoena be issued for her presence in October 4 upon approval of the move by majority of members present.

“The subpoena ad testificandum was approved by majority of the members present to Miss Mago. She can appear via zoom in a location she prefers but her presence is required in order for us to ferret out the truth about her testimony,” stated Aglipay.

He also explained that the decision to seek Mago’s testimony also demonstrates the House panel’s fairness in the conduct of the hearings.

The good government panel launched the probe moto propio amid accusations that the proceedings were merely meant to counter Senate Blue Ribbon Committee developments that tended to confirm allegations of overpricing and other corrupt activities in the procurement of over P8 billion anti-COVID supplies by the Procurement-Service -Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Health.

In last week’s hearing, Aglipay declared that the committee was set to conclude its hearings and will come up with findings possibly last Sept. 24.

On that day, Mago showed up in the Senate and admitted that Pharmally tampered with the ‘expiration’ date of the face shields it delivered to DOH.

On Sept. 27, Aglipay called out Rappler reporter Rambo Talabong who wrote an article claiming that the Lower House has come to the defense of the Duterte government.

Aglipay took offense to the article that quoted him when he asked DOH official if they knew of anyone dying or becoming ill for wearing the supposedly expired face shields.

While stressing that he does not mind being quoted, Aglipay claimed bias in reporting because the news article allegedly did not mention Health Secretary Francisco Duque’s testimony about the shelf life of “face shields”.

“It's OK to have articles, I commend this article here but let us be balanced and fair,” Aglipay stated during the virtual hearing.

He pointed out that the Rappler article did not mention Duque’s statement that shelf life for “face shields” runs to 36 months.

“So it is one-sided and I am calling him out to be balanced because they are proclaiming to be a balanced organization but this article of his never mentioned that Secretary duque said that shelf life is 36 months and did not focus on my statement, making it appear that we are one-sided here and covering up the government,” stated Aglipay.

Duque told the House panel that all two million face shields delivered to the DOH and other hospitals were distributed to different regions of the country.

Health Undersecretary Carolina Taiño, on the other hand, responded to Aglipay’s query on whether the use of the face shield may have resulted to death.

“Wala naman po sa pagkakaalam namin po (To our knowledge,l nobody died),” she said.