Palace: Corporation ‘separate’ from shareholders, no need to scrutinize those behind Pharmally

MANILA, Philippines — There is “no need” to scrutinize persons behind Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., the company that bagged billions of government deals for COVID-19 supplies, since the corporation is a separate entity from its stockholders, Malacañang said Thursday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said this as senators questioned why contracts were awarded to the corporation despite executives of its parent company, Pharmally International Holding Co. Ltd., have allegedly been considered fugitives in Taiwan for committing financial crimes.

“Sa batas po, we have a principle that a corporation has a separate personality, separate and distinct from the stockholders. E ang nag-bid po, yung korporasyon,” Roque said in a press briefing.

(Under the law, we have a principle that a corporation has a separate personality, separate and distinct from the stockholders. But the one that entered a bid was the corporation.)

“So hindi naman po kinakailangan busisiin talaga yung personalidad sa likod ng korporasyon kasi nga po, separate personality yun,” he added.

(We don’t need to scrutinize the personalities behind the corporation because that’s a separate personality.)

Senators also questioned why government contracts went to Pharmally when it only existed six months before the pandemic and only had P625,000 worth of capital, concerns which Roque said were “immaterial.”

“Yung terms of payment po ng Pharmally e meron nga pong downpayment na kakaunti pero pag hindi nagdeliver, walang bayad. So parang immaterial po kung magkano yung paid up capital nya at the time na na-incorporate sya dahil ang importante ay hindi sila mababayaran, kung hindi nagdeliver,” said Roque.

(Under Pharmally’s terms of payment, there will be a small down payment but if they don’t deliver, they won’t be paid. So the concerns on how much its paid up capital was and the time it was incorporated are immaterial. Because what’s important is they won’t be paid if they don’t deliver.)

Further, Roque noted it was Congress that crafted the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act or Bayanihan 1 which mandated to expedite the procurement of highly needed supplies amid the health crisis, doing away with the usual processes under the Government Procurement Reform Act or Republic Act No. 9184.

“Kayo po nagbuo ng ganyang batas na magkakaroon ng expedited purchases ng mga kinakailangan natin sa pandemya at hindi naman po nakasaad doon na kinakailangan, busisiin nga ang bagay bagay ng normally, bubusiin under the regular law na [RA No.] 9184,” said Roque.

(You’re the one who crafted the law that there should be expedited purchases of supplies we need during the pandemic. It is not indicated that we should scrutinize what we normally scrutinize under RA No. 9184.)

Roque earlier cleared Chinese Michael Yang, President Rodrigo Duterte’s former economic adviser, of possibly influencing the procurement of supplies to COVID-19 amid reports linking him to Pharmally.

The Palace official said considerations in awarding the deals were the price and quality of the items, not the persons behind the company.

Duterte himself also defended Yang amid controversies surrounding his ties to Pharmally.

JPV