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Senator Richard Gordon said on Friday, Nov. 26, that the former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang was afraid to come out after the capture of his business colleagues Linconn Ong, as well as siblings Mojit and Twinkle Dargani.

Senator Risa Hontiveros said on Thursday, Nov. 25 that they stand by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee after former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang asked the Supreme Court (SC) to nullify the arrest orders issued against him.

Senator Francis Tolentino is seeking to amend a law to ensure that government consultants and advisors will be appointed based on merit and their fitness for the position.

DIWA Partylist Rep. Michael Aglipay, chairman of the House Committee on Good Government, disclosed Wednesday, Oct. 6, that the chamber decided to step into the controversy surrounding the alleged overpricing of over billions of pesos in COVID-19 supplies when the name of President Rodrigo Duterte was dragged into the issue during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings.

President Duterte could cause a constitutional crisis should he pursue his order to members of his Cabinet and law enforcers to ignore the legislative hearings of the Senate.

President Duterte’s defense of his supposed friends involved in the government’s contracts with Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation should not be equated to tolerating acts of corruption.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque has dismissed a Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. official’s claim that the firm sold the government “spoiled” face shields, saying that it’s practically an unsubstantiated testimony.

Senator Richard Gordon on Monday, September 27, speculated that President Duterte was behind the decision of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation executives to evade questions on its transactions with the government for the purchase of COVID-19 response supplies.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has ordered the transfer of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation director Linconn Ong to the Pasay City Jail for his refusal to answer the senators’ inquiries about their company’s deals with the Philippine government.

Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday disclosed that an executive of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. had worked as a special assistant to former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang.

Controversial former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang on Monday, Sept. 20, claimed that he never financed Pharmally Pharmaceutical’s P8 billion questionable transactions with government but helped it find friends to bankroll the deal.

As far as 1Sambayan convenor Etta Rosales is concerned, the “good word” from the Senate’s investigations on the alleged corruption in the government’s purchase of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) supplies last year must be spread among Filipinos.

A business partner of former presidential adviser Michael Yang has denied her links to the foreign company which bagged over P8.6 billion of deals from the government for the purchase of COVID-19 supplies.

The executive department has no authority to prohibit private individuals from attending the Senate’s investigation on the alleged anomalies in the government’s procurement of COVID-19 supplies, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said on Wednesday, September 15.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III has posted a cryptic tweet apparently addressing President Duterte’s plan to screen invitations for Cabinet officials in the upper chamber’s hearings.

Opposition Senator Leila de Lima on Tuesday, Sept. 14 renewed her push for the Senate to investigate former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang’s alleged links to the illegal drug trade, especially now that he is the subject of its probe into the government’s procurement of supposed overpriced COVID-19 supplies.

The Senate will remain independent and continue with its mandate in ensuring proper use of public funds, even as the executive department would refuse to cooperate in its proceedings.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Wilkins Villanueva absolved former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang, who is at the center of the Senate probe on the alleged anomalous transaction in the procurement of face masks and face shields, of any illegal drug connections in Davao City.