Former senator Richard Gordon on Monday said former President Rodrigo Duterte should be held liable in the Pharmally graft cases.
Gordon, quoted by reports said “the former president should be held liable because he appointed them,” referring to former Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) officials Lloyd Christopher Lao and Warren Liong who gave the P4.1 billion COVID test kits contract to Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation.
Gordon, former chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that investigated the issue, noted that Pharmally was financed by the former economic adviser of Duterte, Michael Yang.
Gordon said Yang should have been included in the resolution of the Office of the Ombudsman to file graft charges against PS-DBM officials and Pharmally executives.
The former senator added that while he was pleased with the action of the Ombudsman, plunder should have been filed against the respondents. “That’s plunder because they stole from the people. They accumulated money, luxury cars. Where did they get the funds for that?” Gordon said.
Some senators in the 18th Congress had suspected Pharmally was favored by government due to its links with Yang. They also said the items it sold to government were overpriced.
Duterte denied there was overpricing and said the deals were above board.
Ombudsman Martires stood by the decision of the special investigation panel to file graft charges and exclude Yang and Duterte.
“There is no evidence on record that the financier was Michael Yang,” he said.
“Pinapakinggan namin, may mga na-save kaming video ng hearing ng Senate, parang walang namang nagbanggit sa witnesses na involved si President Duterte,” he added.
(We listened to videos of the Senate hearing, none of the witnesses saod the President Duterte was involved.)
The Ombudsman also said the evidence they had did not point to the accumulation of wealth of any public official.
“Talagang lampas sa P50 million na sinasabi ng batas sa plunder, but we can’t file plunder, there is no evidence na nag-accumulate si Lao or Liong [ng P50 million]… Ang maliwanag sa records, PS-DBM or some officials of PS-DBM favored Pharmally, pinaboran nila by giving Pharmally yung kontrata,” Martires said.
(Under the law, plunder has a threshold of P50 million. We can’t file plunder since there is no evidence that Lao or Liong accumulated P50 million. What is clear in the records is that the PS-DBM or some officials of PS-DBM favored Pharmally by giving it the contract.)