Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Saturday urged officials of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. to face the Blue Ribbon probe and testify on the P10 billion supply deals they got from the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) previously headed by resigned Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao.
“I’m wondering why up to now the officials of Pharmally have not appeared before the Senate. We subpoenaed them but we could not find them in the addresses indicated in their submissions to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),” Drilon said.
“They know that the hearings are going on. Why have they not volunteered and come up and said, ‘I’m here and I’m willing to explain all of this.’ Why? That’s why questions are being raised,” he added.
The Blue Ribbon committee investigating the allegedly overpriced purchases by PS-DBM has tried to subpoena Huan Tzu Yen, the chief executive officer of Pharmally; Twinkle Dargani, president; and Mohit Dargani, treasurer, but the stated addresses in the corporation’s General Information Sheet appeared to be fictitious.
“Kung wala kang itinatago, bakit ka magtatago? Where are the officials of Pharmally?” Drilon said.
The senator contrasted Pharmally’s apparent silence to what Rebmann Incorporated did, the company that supplied personal protective equipment during the Aquino administration.
After presidential spokesperson Harry Roque questioned the purchases of PPEs by the Aquino administration from Rebmann, the firm’s officials immediately surfaced and defended the purchases as being aboveboard.
“Again, the willingness of Rebmann to explain is an indication that the contract is aboveboard as against the situation with Pharmally where up to now I have not seen a single soul,” Drilon said.
Drilon said the almost P8 billion that Pharmally bagged from the PS-DBM in 2020 could be “just the tip of the iceberg” because in 2021, the controversial trading firm also got P2.3 billion in contract supplies from PS-DBM.
“If Pharmally’s paid up capital is only P625,000, where did it get the money to buy over P10 billion worth of medical supplies?” Drilon said.
From zero declared income in 2019, Pharmally recorded a gross income of P384.04 million and a net income of P264.65 million in 2020.