FILE Senate President Vicente Sotto III (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to nullify an “unconstitutional” order by President Duterte barring Cabinet secretaries and other executive officials from continuing to participate in the ongoing blue ribbon committee inquiry into how the pandemic response funds of the Department of Health (DOH) were spent.
In their petition for certiorari and prohibition, Senate President Vicente Sotto III and other leaders of the chamber also sought a temporary restraining order against a memorandum issued on Oct. 4 by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on behalf of the President, which prohibited officials from attending any more hearings called by the committee.
The committee opened its inquiry in August and the officials had been attending its hearings until the President started to criticize the investigation led by panel chair Sen. Richard Gordon and finally ordered Cabinet members to stop participating in it.
Waste of time
Duterte reasoned that the officials’ time was being wasted at the hearings and that their focus was being taken away from the more pressing problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. No official has appeared at the online hearings since the memo was released by Malacañang.
“The issuance and implementation of the Subject Memorandum infringes on the Senate’s prerogatives, prevents it and one of its organs from exercising its constitutional power to conduct inquiries in aid of legislation, and impedes the full exercise of the Senate’s plenary legislative power,” according to the 81-page petition.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Gordon joined Sotto in the petition, which was backed by a resolution to file the case in the Supreme Court.
The senators said the memo was “patently unconstitutional and in utter defiance” of the high court’s 2006 ruling that the executive should not issue any directive that would “frustrate” the power of Congress to conduct inquiries in aid of legislation.
In addition, the presidential directive deprives the people of their constitutional right to information on matters of public concern, the senators said.
The petition cited the P77 billion allocated to fight the pandemic. It said lawmakers, along with health-care workers and other Filipinos, had the constitutional right to inquire into how that large sum was spent.
Spurred by COA report
The Senate inquiry was triggered by a Commission on Audit (COA) report of alleged irregularities in the use of DOH pandemic response funds, including the transfer of at least P42 billion to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) without the required documentation.
Later, the senators found that the undercapitalized Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. bagged the biggest bulk of contracts, which was worth P11.5 billion, to provide the DOH with pandemic supplies including face masks and shields, personal protective equipment and COVID-19 test kits in 2020 and 2021.
They learned that Michael Yang, a Chinese businessman and friend of the President who once served as his economic adviser, provided a loan to the cash-strapped trading company and had introduced its officers to his own friends and suppliers in China. Yang denied he gave financial assistance but admitted linking his Chinese friends to Pharmally executives.
In the course of the investigation, Drilon also reported alleged overpricing of the pandemic supplies from Pharmally.
A preliminary report by the blue ribbon committee said there was a “grand conspiracy” to defraud the government of billions of pesos and this could have only been done with the “imprimatur” of the President. It recommended corruption charges against Pharmally and PS-DBM officials.
Possible tax evasion
More recently, the senators said there could have been tax evasion by Pharmally and its executives, which had prompted the President to remark earlier this week that if that were true, the Senate should send the company’s officers to prison or even kill them for committing a crime.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, one of the critics of the President, welcomed his move to stop defending Pharmally, but said he should not tell senators what to do and especially not to tell them or anyone else to kill people.
Instead, the President must withdraw his memo and also “stop defending his officials and his cronies who, in all likelihood, benefited from these dubious transactions with Pharmally,” she said.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs should run after everyone involved in shenanigans and their “coconspirators in government.”
‘Damage control’ mode
Hontiveros, however, views the President’s apparent change of stance toward Pharmally as just a political stunt because “he’s feeling the heat” and was shifting toward “damage control.”
“His cooks are getting their finger singed, not only limited to the DOH and the PS-DBM, Pharmally itself, even his former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang is not getting off the hook in the inquiries,” she said.
In response, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Hontiveros’ statements were just political talk coming from a senator seeking reelection.
“No overprice was proven, no violation of bidding rules was proven. So the President has nothing to fear about Pharmally,” Roque said.
There is no evidence of corruption either, he said, adding that the President would not care about charges against Pharmally. —WITH REPORTS FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA AND MELVIN GASCON