President Rodrigo Duterte defended anew former presidential adviser Michael Yang Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation as he slammed the Senate inquiry into the alleged overpriced deals on pandemic medical supplies.
The President also vowed to Duterte likewise offered to resign if graft is proven.
“I already told you, if there is corruption, ahora mismo, I will step down. The Commission on Audit already said there was no anomaly in the disbursements and delivery of the items. What do you (senators) want to elicit?” he said in a pre-recorded Talk to the People that aired Saturday morning.
“The agenda of the Blue Ribbon committee is motu proprio investigation. The senators kept looking for the technical and financial requirements of Pharmally. But I don’t have anything to do with that. Pharmally is really a Pharmally corporation in Singapore.”
“As for Yang, for the last 20 years he has been a businessman in Davao. I
Duterte initially asked him when I made contact with Chinese…What is clear is that there was a contract, there was delivery, the specifications – quality, quantity and all – were complete. And payment was made after delivery,” the President added.
He described Congress as “maldito” or naughty for investigating the Department of Health first for unspent funding and then for the alleged overpriced medical
“They started first with the unspent billions. They were asking [Health Secretary Francisco III] Duque why the funds remained unspent…Don’t listen to Congress. They are bullshit. Those devils are just a nuisance,” Duterte added.
He also took a shot at Senator Franklin Drilon and asked the lawmaker from Iloilo to explain his alleged involvement with jailed alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.
“This Drilon – he might want to explain his relationship with Janet Lim-Napoles since you want to discuss corruption and the use of people’s money. And I can still remember that Ms. Napoles tampered with billions of pesos,” Duterte said.
Drilon, for his part, said he and the other senators investigating alleged irregularities in the Duterte administration will not be distracted.
“All I heard is old news,” the senator said. “If all these malicious attacks are the price we have to pay for exposing the truth, then be it. We will face them.”
