RUDE SENATORS President Duterte challenges the senators to question his order to prevent Cabinet members from attending Senate hearings on the Pharmally deals in the Supreme Court so he can show how rude they are to his officials. —MALACAÑANG PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte is running scared as the Senate blue ribbon committee presses further into its investigation of the multibillion-peso deals bagged by an undercapitalized trading company, threatening all those who could expose corruption in the use of pandemic response funds, according to Sen. Richard Gordon.
“The President’s incessant and vicious attacks on me can only be interpreted that he is so afraid that the Senate investigation will reach the doors of his official residence once we release our partial interim report,” Gordon, who is leading the inquiry, said in a statement on Thursday.
Duterte is desperate to cover up the fact that he is afraid, the blue ribbon panel chair said.
“Last night, what we saw is a wild man threatening those who seek the truth behind the massive corruption plaguing his administration. He desperately tries to hide his fear because our people are now realizing how they have been fooled all these years,” he said.
Senators to be arrested
In his Wednesday night nationally televised talk, Duterte warned that he would order the arrest of senators who cite members of his Cabinet in contempt in their investigation of the government contracts with Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. He reminded the police and the military of his directive to ignore any orders from the Senate.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who had also earned the ire of the President for his active participation in the Senate probe, said there was no legal basis for Mr. Duterte’s order.
“As a lawyer, [President Duterte] should know that he cannot do that,” Lacson said in a text message.
The former national police chief said a person, whether a lawmaker or not, may only be arrested with a warrant of arrest issued by a court or through a citizen’s arrest such as when a crime had just been committed.
“That being said, even without the warning, in the observance of interdepartmental courtesy, I don’t think the Senate blue ribbon committee, much less the Senate as a body, will cite for contempt and detain any cabinet secretary knowing that he/she is the alter ego of the President of the Republic,” Lacson said.
President, not king
Sen. Risa Hontiveros said the Senate would not stop its investigations “just because the President feels offended.”
“He is President Duterte, not King Duterte,” she said in a statement.
But the more serious question is why will the President issue “illegal orders” and create a “constitutional crisis,” she said, referring to allegations by the senators that Duterte was stopping a coequal branch of government from performing its duties.
“What is it in Pharmally and their conspirators in government that the President himself is their number one defense lawyer?” she asked.
The President on Wednesday night also said that he would not withdraw a memorandum ordering Cabinet officials to stop attending the blue ribbon committee hearings and challenged the senators to question its constitutionality in the Supreme Court.
“I may not be sure if I will win or lose, but I just want the Supreme Court to see how rude the senators are. That’s only my goal,” he said.
Galvez work ‘derailed’
Duterte said Gordon’s committee hearings “clearly devolved” into “a political circus” and “a witch-hunt,” and was being used by some senators “in aid of election.”
He had earlier declared he did not care if the senators destroyed Pharmally. What he was concerned about was the time that officials spent in the Senate hearing being wasted, he said.
He cited the work of Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., who is in charge of the vaccination program, which was “derailed” due to his attendance at the hearings.
Galvez said he, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, and other officials were thankful for the memo as they were again “back to doing the jobs that we love.”
He said they became emotional after seeing each other for the first time last Monday during the launch of a vaccination center at Clark, Pampanga.
The blue ribbon committee has held only 11 hearings in 48 days as of Wednesday since it opened the inquiry on August 18. The Cabinet members attended only 10 hearings.
Duterte has relentlessly attacked the Senate as it delved deeper into the details of the P11.5 billion in government deals for pandemic supplies awarded to Pharmally, a trading company that had a paid-up capital of only P625,000.
Pharmally officials had disclosed that they were financially struggling and got a loan from Chinese businessman Michael Yang, who is the President’s friend and former economic adviser.
Yang, who introduced officers of Pharmally’s parent company to the President in 2017, denied providing the loan, claiming that it was his friends who provided money to the company.
Luxury cars
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said there was corruption involving billions of pesos in COVID-19 funds by friends of the President who bought luxury cars while Filipinos were getting sick, going hungry, and dying due to the pandemic.
Gordon said he would not allow the President to intimidate the Senate and Duterte’s “tantrums and threats” would not distract the lawmakers from probing how pandemic funds were spent.
“Mr. Duterte, go out to where our people are suffering, looking for jobs, are getting sick, and their loved ones dying due to the pandemic. Instead of defending and protecting your men who brandish their luxurious lifestyle, focus on resolving the impact of the pandemic and corruption to our people,” he said.
The President has been critical of Gordon, Lacson, Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, and Pangilinan since the Senate started looking into the alleged irregular transfer of P42 billion in pandemic response funds from the Department of Health to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management.
He escalated the attacks against the senators after they revealed that Pharmally had links with Yang and sold allegedly overpriced face masks and shields, personal protective equipment, and COVID-19 test kits.
He had called Gordon a “despot” who used the Philippine Red Cross as a “milking cow” for politics and ordered an audit of the finances of the private humanitarian group headed by the senator.
“This is how our game will go,” he said, addressing Gordon and the other senators in a televised address on September 11. “You find fault in us, and we will find what’s wrong with you.”