Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Monday, June 6 maintained that the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee report that recommended the filing of criminal charges against Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III was correct as he is also liable for the questionable Covid-19 pandemic supply deals with Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp.
Drilon made the statement after Duque said in an ANC Headstart interview that he does not regret transferring billions worth of funds to the Procurement Services of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM-PS) since more lives could have been lost to Covid-19.
“Sec. Duque should hire a good lawyer. Clearly under the Revsied Penal Code, he is a principal by indispensable cooperation,” Drilon said in a statement.
“PS-DMB officials could not have committed plunder without the P42-billion DOH funds being illegally transferred without any documentation, to PS-DBM. He is part of the conspiracy to defraud,” the outgoing veteran legislator said.
In the televised interview, Duque said he has “no regrets” over his actions at the height of the pandemic, reiterating that he trusted the institution.
“No regrets. There’s no evidence of wrongdoing. We gave them all the documents,” Duque said.
“Unfortunately, they did not include documents that countered their official findings,” the health secretary added.
Duque also admitted that he found the Senate blue ribbon panel’s probe into the alleged overpriced Covid-19 supplies as unfair.
“Yes to me, and to all those who have been implicated but only had in their heart to save lives, to protect lives of our healthcare workers. They were dying,” the DOH chief stressed.
During the course of the inquiry, the DOH have been repeatedly questioned over the transfer of P42-billion to the PS-DBM for the purchase of pandemic response supplies.
This was after the Commission on Audit (COA) found deficiencies in the DOH’s handling of Covid-19 response funds.
However, the Senate panel’s draft committee report on Pharmally was merely archived after it failed to achieve 11 signatures which is needed for it to be reported in the plenary.
Nevertheless, Drilon said the Senate blue ribbon committee panel in the next 19th Congress can revive the investigation on Pharmally and use the findings of the panel chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon to pursue the case.
Senator-elect Joseph Victor "JV" Ejercito, in a separate televised interview, said he too favors another investigation on the alleged anomalous transaction of the government with Pharmally in the next Congress.
Ejercito said the transfer of the P42-billion Covid-19 funds by the government to a company that only had a P625,000 paid up capital, warrants a reinvestigation as it concerns public funds.
However, Ejercito, who won during the May 9, 2022 senatorial polls said he does not believe outgoing President Duterte was involved in the deals which is stated under the committee report.