MANILA, Philippines — Two groups of alumni of two of the country’s top universities, which included a brother of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, blasted President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday for creating a “constitutional crisis” by preventing officials from testifying in a Senate investigation of alleged irregularities in the use of pandemic response funds.
In a statement, one group from the University of the Philippines College of Law led by retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, strongly condemned the president’s “clearly unconstitutional” order to Cabinet members and other executive officials to ignore summonses from the Senate blue ribbon committee.
“President Duterte’s directive has created an unnecessary constitutional crisis in the middle of a pandemic that has wrought havoc on the lives of Filipinos,” it said. “The president must respect the constitutional exercise of power by a coequal branch of government.”
The Senate inquiry was opened in August to look into the transfer of at least P42 billion in pandemic response funds from the Department of Health (DOH) to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).
The focus of the probe shifted to Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. after senators learned that the undercapitalized trading company was awarded P11.5-billion worth of contracts with the PS-DBM and the DOH in 2020 and 2021 for allegedly overpriced face shields and masks, personal protective equipment, and COVID-19 test kits.
Pharmally was able to bag the contracts supposedly with the help of Michael Yang, the president’s longtime Chinese friend and former economic adviser, who provided a loan to the financially struggling company last year.
On Thursday, Duterte said he had directed Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to prepare his order to executive officials not to attend the Senate hearings.
He also ordered the military and police not to assist the Senate in arresting individuals whom senators declared in contempt for noncooperation.
Affirmed by SC
The UP law alumni said the Supreme Court had affirmed the senators’ authority to grill members of the executive department in their investigations in aid of legislation.
A group of Ateneo de Manila University alumni also issued a statement, saying Duterte should let the Senate “perform its constitutional oversight function” in investigating Pharmally.
Among the signatories of the statement was the health secretary’s older brother, Cesar Duque, a lawyer who had testified in the ongoing Senate investigation regarding their family-owned company’s supply deals with the DOH.
“If the president has nothing to hide, there is no reason for him to stop the investigation,” the group said.
The Ateneo group said the high court had clearly ruled that the chief executive had “no power” to bar Cabinet members and other officials from attending Senate inquiries. The court ruled that “appearance is mandatory” when the probe is in aid of legislation, the group said.
Coequal branch
As a coequal branch of government, the executive “ cannot frustrate the power of Congress to legislate by refusing to comply with its demands for information,” it said.
The “only exception” is the so-called executive privilege that covers national security, military or diplomatic secrets, and “conversations and correspondences between the president and his officials.”
They said public officials implicated in the Pharmally contracts cannot invoke executive privilege since the issue would not fall under any of the exceptions mentioned by the Supreme Court.
The opposition coalition 1Sambayan said the president’s move had “traces of the dark days of martial law.”
“It is the same heavy-handed, dictatorial and authoritarian despotic rule employed by the late (strongman) Ferdinand Marcos,” it said in a statement on Saturday.1Sambayan urged the police and the military to “remain loyal to the country and the people, and ignore this illegal and unconstitutional order” from the president.
On Saturday, Sen. Richard Gordon, who is leading the Senate investigation, said he was relieved that a key witness, Pharmally regulatory affairs head Krizle Grace Mago, had surfaced after being incommunicado for a week following her testimony confirming that she ordered the tampering of medical-grade face shields delivered to the DOH.
Mago was taken into protective custody on Friday by the House of Representatives, which informed Gordon that arrangements would be made for her to continue participating in the Senate hearings.
She had written Speaker Lord Allan Velasco requesting protection, saying that her life and liberty were in “grave danger because of my coming out and my desire to speak the truth.”
Mago was dropped off alone early Friday evening at the House and appeared in a “relaxed mood” when she was received by House sergeant-at-arms Mao Aplasca.
“I didn’t see her show any nervousness. She seemed OK when she arrived yesterday,” Aplasca said in a phone interview on Saturday.
Mago was also summoned by the House good government panel to its own hearing on the Pharmally deals on Monday.
DOH probes tampering
The DOH on Saturday said it was also investigating the alleged tampering of the face shields it had purchased from Pharmally.
Mago had testified that she ordered that certificate documents be changed to make it appear that they were manufactured in 2021 instead of 2020. She said damaged and soiled face shields were also delivered to the DOH.
She was instructed to give the order to Pharmally workers by company secretary and treasurer Mohit Dargani, who denied her allegation.
“The DOH has decided to suspend acceptance and further deliveries of face shields from Pharmally, pending the conclusion of the investigations in the department. We are aware of the statements made by Pharmally employees about the tampering of the production date on the certificate,” said Health Undersecretary Charade Mercado-Grande.
Pharmally has delivered over 500,000 pieces of face shields, but the DOH has not yet paid the company because it has not yet completed its deliveries.