‘Talk is cheap’: Palace says Mago’s testimony of ‘swindling’ gov’t must be substantiated

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Monday shrugged off a Pharmally official’s admission of “swindling” the government, saying this should be substantiated by physical evidence since “talk is cheap.”

In a Senate blue ribbon committee hearing last week, Pharmally regulatory affairs Krizle Mago confessed she believes the company swindled the government when it delivered face shields with false production dates.

“Ngayon, lumalabas po itong mga bagong issue na ito. Ang tanong po, tatayo ba ho yung ganyang testimonya? Tignan po natin. Kinakailangan po kasi yan, ma-substantiate,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said when sought to comment on Mago’s admission.

(Right now, this new issue has emerged. The question is, will that kind of testimony stand on its own? Let’s see. It needs to be substantiated.)

“Alam niyo po kasi noong ako’y nagttraining pa ng mga abogado, sinasabi ko, hangga’t maaari, dapat physical evidence ang ating dapat ibigay sa hukuman kasi kung testimonya lang, talk is cheap. Pwedeng mabili, pwedeng matakot. Hanapan pa po natin ng substantiated evidence. Hindi lang po yung testimonya ng isang tao,” he added.

(When I trained lawyers, I always say that as much as possible, physical evidence should be presented before the court because if it’s just testimony, talk is cheap. It can be bought, it can be from fear. Let’s look for substantiated evidence, not just the testimony of one person.)

Roque also reiterated the Department of Health’s (DOH) statement that all face shields delivered by Pharmally were inspected and were of good quality.

“Sabi naman po ng DOH, kahit kailan pa yan na-manufacture, bago po nila tinanggap, ininspeksyon po nila yan at sinigurado nila na lahat ng tinanggap nilang mga kasama doon sa biniling PPE [personal protective equipment] ay pursuant to the standard of the WHO [World Health Organization],” Roque said.

(The DOH said that regardless of when it was manufactured, they inspected the face shields before accepting it and all those delivered along with the PPEs were pursuant to the standards of the WHO.)

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