The Department of Justice (DOJ) will evaluate if there is a need for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct a probe once the two congressional committees submit their reports on their inquiries on the alleged anomalous transactions made by the government with Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. in the purchase about P42 billion worth of COVID-19 supplies and equipment.
Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said:
“The two congressional committees will endorse their respective report to the DOJ and the OMB (Office of the Ombudsman) for appropriate action.
“On the part of the DOJ, it will make a preliminary evaluation to determine if there is a need to refer the reports to the NBI for validation of the evidence.”
Guevarra said that if there is a need, “the NBI will be directed to conduct its investigation, if necessary, on the evidence already gathered by the congress.”
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee was reported to have recommended the filing of administrative charges and criminal charges, including graft and plunder, against Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III, Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Services (DBM-PS) Undersecretary Christopher Lloyd Lao, and Procurement Director Warren Rex Liong.
“Clearly, the following public officials violated the law in illegally favoring an underfunded and unqualified supplier: PS-DBM OIC Lloyd Christopher A. Lao and Atty. Warren Rex H. Liong,” Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee.
“Likewise, in cahoots with the aforementioned public officials are the following private persons who broke the law: Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, Huang Tzu Yen, Mohit Dargani, Twinkle Dargani, Liconn Ong, Krizle Grace Mago, Gerald T. Cruz, Rose Nono Lin, Lin Weixiong, and Michael Yang,” Gordon also said.
The House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability chaired by Diwa party-list Rep. Michael Aglipay, on the other hand, has released its report and recommended the filing of charges of syndicated estafa against Pharmally officials Huang, Ong, Mohit Dargani, Twinkle Dargani, Garado and Mago.
Also, the Senate’s committee report scored President Duterte for his role in the procurement of alleged overpriced COVID-19 supplies and equipment.
“The President as Chief Executive should have known what his appointees and friends were doing. If he did not know prior to the Senate investigation, then it certainly came to his attention when the hearings were underway, and instead of investigating the matter or supporting any such investigation, he chose to defend and protect those closest to him who had dipped their fingers into the coffers of the nation,” the report stated.
“To make it more egregious, it happened at a time when our people needed the resources of the government the most and when their lives depended on it,” it said.
“The President thus betrayed the public trust, in violation of his oath of office under the 1987 Constitution by, among others (by) appointing Michael Yang, a foreign national, as ‘economic adviser to the President’ in 2018,” the report added.
If the President is criminally liable in the Pharmally transactions, he can be sued only after this term of office ends in June 2022.
The Senate panel’s report also endorsed the filing of cases to support the deportation of Yang, Weixiong, and Ke for allegedly being undesirable aliens.