Sen. Joel Villanueva in one of the Blue Ribbon Committee investigations into the 2020 Commission on Audit (COA) report and other issues related to the budget utilization of the Department of Health on August 18, 2021. Screen grab / Senate PRIB file photo
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Joel Villanueva on Friday confronted the president of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp.—the firm that bagged over P8.6 billion supply deals for medical goods in 2020—for allegedly not paying its employees’ government benefits.
Upon Villanueva’s questioning, Pharmally president Huang Tzu Yen told the Senate blue ribbon committee that the small firm has seven full-time employees.
“We have seven full-time employees on our payroll. To facilitate all the deliveries, we do employ ad hoc employees in terms of packing and deliveries…we employ ad hoc employees so that the deliveries are timely,” Huang said.
At this point, Villanueva, who chairs the Senate labor committee, asked if Pharmally pays government-mandated contributions for its employees’ benefits.
“For our full-time employees, I believe we pay all the necessary benefits,” Huang said in response.
But the senator cited documents he obtained showing that this was not the case.
“I have documents stating that you have zero contributions to government-mandated contributions of PhilHealth, Pag-ibig, and SSS (Social Security System),” Villanueva said.
After he was given time to check the company’s records, Huang said Pharmally had been paying government-mandated contributions.
“We do have records of our company paying for SSS, I’m not entirely sure to which specific welfare but based on my recollection, all proper welfare should be paid to the employees of our company,” he added.
At this point, blue-ribbon committee chairman Senator Richard Gordon reminded Huang of Pharmally’s obligations to pay the benefits of its employees.
“The money you’re being paid by this government goes to the billions of pesos, so your littleness doesn’t have anything to do with your obligation with the little people of this country,” Gordon said.
Villanueva, for his part, asked Gordon to subpoena documents “showing proof of payment by Pharmally of government-mandated contributions.”
The Gordon-led panel is currently investigating the procurement of “overpriced” personal protective equipment, face masks, and shields made by the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service on behalf of the Department of Health in 2020.
The company at the center of the probe is Pharmally, which was awarded government contracts worth over P8.6 billion at the height of the pandemic last year despite being only several months old and having just P625,000 in paid-up capital.