PRESIDENT Duterte said on Thursday he was prompted to run for senator in 2022 because he was disgusted by the ongoing Senate investigation into the awarding of supply contracts for billions worth of pandemic supplies — zeroing in on contractors with apparent ties to a former presidential adviser and businessman-friend.
In his speech after the inspection of the Calapan Port Passenger Port Terminal Building in Oriental Mindoro, Duterte resumed his tirade against some senators for disrespecting, he said, Cabinet members in the investigation.
He said he was particularly disgusted by the practice of senators – naming Blue Ribbon chairman Senator Richard “Dick Gordon and Minority Leader Franklin Drilon – to constantly cut off Health Secretary Francisco Duque III when they reply to questions during Senate hearings.
“That is the reason why I will run. I will tell them, you know there are rules in Congress, but there are fundamental laws,” Duterte said.
Duterte, through Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, issued an order, which barred Cabinet officials from attending Senate Blue Ribbon hearings on the negotiated contracts covering the P42-billion DOH pandemic funds that DOH transferred to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM). The DOH had outsourced its bidding for medical supplies to PS-DBM, but the wholesale transfer of the funds, without a memorandum of agreement, was questioned by the Commission on Audit.
He insisted the lawmakers are wasting the time of the Cabinet members, who are busy managing the government’s measures against the Covid-19 pandemic.
In most of the 13 hearings called by the Senate, much focus was on Pharmally Pharmaceuticals Corp., a low-capital startup that bagged some P10 billion worth of contracts, and is believed to have been financed by Michael Yang, Duterte’s businessman-friend and former adviser.
The Senate questioned the legality of the Duterte-inspired Medialdea order before the Supreme Court, saying it negates the constitutional mandate of Congress to conduct inquiries in aid of legislation. On Wednesday, the SC ordered Malacanang to answer the petition filed by several senators led by Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Gordon.
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez