Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III on Tuesday, Feb. 15 said he would resign as Senate chief and is ready to be executed at the Luneta if critics could prove he pressured his colleagues in the 24-member Senate to sign the Senate Blue Ribbon committee report on the alleged overpriced delivery of COVID-19 related medical supplies to the government.
Sotto stressed that he never talked to any of his colleagues to affix their signatures on the report since he himself did not sign.
According to him, the motive of those behind the text messages was to destroy his relationship with President Duterte whom he regards as his friend.
Aside from recommending the filing of appropriate charges against those involved in the purchase of pandemic supplies from Pharmally Pharmaceutical corporation, the draft committee report also sought the filing of charges arising from the controversial multi-billion Pharmally contracts against President Duterte after end of his six-year tenure.
Eight senators have so far signed the report.
To make the committee report official, an additional three signatures are needed before it could be submitted to the Senate plenary session for debate. The committee has 20 members.
Other senators were reported studying the report which stated the President betrayed public trust because of his defense on those linked to the contracts, including Michael Yang, a former economic adviser of the President.
The report issued by Senator Richard J. Gordon, committee chairman, sought the deportation of Yang who reportedly helped in the financing of Pharmally because it only had a paid-up capital of P625,000.
In time, Pharmally was able to corner more than P10 billion pandemic-related contracts from the Procurement Service, Department of Budget and Management (PDS-DBM).
The report, likewise, recommended the filing of plunder charges against Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III, PS-DBM officials and the management and officials of Pharmally.
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