‘No nation deserves Duterte’

'Senator Richard Gordon blasts President'

SENATOR RICHARD Gordon, who chairs the Blue Ribbon Committee, investigating alleged corruption in Covid-19 funds, has said President Rodrigo Duterte betrayed the public’s trust and that “no nation deserves” the outspoken Filipino leader.

Senator Richard Gordon, chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee. (Cesar Tomambo / Senate)

“Di pa ba natin nakikita itong laro nitong presidenteng ito? Ibang klase, no nation deserves him,” Gordon was recently quoted as saying by GMA News, citing Duterte's controversial remarks, including expletives against the Pope. “No nation deserves him because nagtiwala ang tao and he betrayed the trust of the people.”

Duterte strongly criticised, insulted and mocked Gordon after the Blue Ribbon Committee (on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations) started its probe into the alleged overpriced procurement of personal protective equipment by the Duterte administration from the controversial Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation.

He also vowed to campaign against Gordon should he run for public office next year.

Gordon has told Duterte to stop protecting Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, a small company - with only over P600 million in capital - which bagged P12 billion worth of deals from the government. “Mr. President, hindi niyo po dapat proteksyunan ‘yang Pharmally. You are a Philippine president, you are elected by the country and you must protect the Filipino people,” Gordon said.

“Ang pino-proteksyunan niyo ay yung Pharmally at ‘yung mga kasama ninyo, at wala kong sinasabing Pilipino sila pero dapat siyempre mayroong malaking advantage na nakakapagsalita sila ng sarili nilang wika dito. ‘Di natin makausap ng dire-diretso pero lumalabas nagkakaroon sila ng passes na gumawa ng katiwalian,” he added.

Duterte also barred his Cabinet members from attending the senate hearing, saying they have to ask his permission first. He called the hearing a waste of time.

“I would just like also to remind Senator Gordon na I will campaign against you for being unfit to be a senator of this Republic. You are trying…well, others are trying to be Chinese when they are not; and ikaw naman, you are trying to be an American na hindi ka naman talaga totoong Amerikano. Every time that there is a committee hearing, you subpoena more than a hundred resource persons and witnesses and then more than half of that number comes from the government. Instead of working, they are stuck attending hearings that last for more than five hours,” Duterte said.

“Tama ba 'yang ginagawa ninyo? I mean, are you crazy? Bakit ganoon, can you not approximate the time that you would take to make these persons testify, question and answer? Lalo na ikaw Gordon, abugado ka. Ano bang kakalkalin mo? Nandiyan na ‘yang medisina ginagamit na namin. Para sa akin tapos na ang trabaho. Iyang Pharmally na 'yan or droga, then we will talk about it. Hintay lang kayo. Iyan ang ano ko. It's a waste of time. And I am ordering Senator --- ah si Secretary Duque that the next time that he is invited, he should clear the invitation to appear dito sa akin and I will decide. Nasabi na ni Secretary Duque yung kaya niyang. Ano pa ba ang gusto nila pati yung kaluluwa ninyo hatakin?” he added.

Senator Leila de Lima said she is not surprised with Duterte’s effort to prevent the unravelling of the truth about any irregularities in his administration by requiring his clearance before his Cabinet members attend Senate hearings, which is effectively a gag order.

“Duterte’s gag order relative to Cabinet members' attendance at the on-going Senate Blue-Ribbon Committee probe on the alleged corruption in his administration’s pandemic response is not even based on executive privilege, but presidential hubris,” she said.

“Duterte's gag order on Secretary (Francisco) Duque and other Cabinet members, preventing them from attending the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing is expected. It was only a matter of time before Duterte resorted to an illegal action to prevent the unravelling of the truth in the Senate hearing," she said. “Duterte will continue to push the government to a constitutional crisis, if only to save the Davao boys in their 8.7 billion plunder, the details of which are slowly uncovered in the Senate hearing.”

Senator Panfilo Lacson also questioned how Pharmally Pharmaceuticals Corporation cornered nearly P12 billion in contracts from the government. He noted the amount is a huge chunk of the P42 billion that the Department of Health transferred to the Department of Budget and Management's Procurement Service (PS-DBM) to procure the personal protective equipment, among others. 

Lacson told Pharmally chairman Huang Tzu Yen and director Linconn Ong to submit to the committee official records showing how many contracts Pharmally bagged, and how much were involved. 

Citing figures from the Government Procurement Policy Board, Lacson said Pharmally was awarded at least seven contracts amounting to P8,625,496,016. “If we add the computations of Senators Franklin Drilon and Richard Gordon, it could reach P12 billion,” he said. 

Earlier, Lacson said the initial information he got indicates only 50,000 face masks would be supplied by the Sitaldas Company and 100 million pieces by the Ferrer-owned EMS, though only 25 million pieces were received. He said a big part of Pharmally’s contract involved P3.82 billion for two million sets of personal protective equipment that Pharmally bought for P1,150 per set and sold at P1,910 for a profit of P760 per set - or a total of at least P1.5 billion. (Mindanao Examiner)