Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday contradicted that Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation official Krizle Grace Mago was pressured in her testimony at the Senate, adding that the latter answered “forthrightly” during the investigation into the alleged pandemic supplies mess.
Hontiveros pointed out that Mago may have been pressured by someone in a powerful post to revoke her testimony at the Senate probe where she was under oath.
“Pressured response? It is sad that Ms. Mago feels this way. Telling the truth is a relief. The greatest pressure is to lie,” Hontiveros said in a statement.
The senator was reacting to Mago’s statements during the House hearing on alleged overpriced COVID-19 supplies wherein Mago said she was pressured to say that Pharmally swindled the government.
“Regarding my previous statement that I believed we swindled the government, it was a pressured response. Given the level of pressure I was under and the rush of emotions associated with the allegations and my subsequent admission, I was not in the best frame of mind to think clearly,” Mago said.
But Hontiveros said it was Mago who said “she cannot deny” that Pharmally officials changed the production year certificates. Mago even said she was following the instructions of Mohit Dargani, Pharmally’s treasurer, Hontiveros added.
Nonetheless, the senator said she still hopes that the truth will come out in the Senate inquiry.
Put Pharmally on blacklist
After the Department of Health suspended deliveries from Pharmally, Hontiveros also urged the department to consider putting the company on its blacklist if the supplies they received were indeed substandard.
“Kung sakaling mapatunayang substandard ang mga deliveries ng Pharmally, dapat ma-blacklist na rin ang kaduda-dudang kompanyang ito,” she said as she hailed the DOH for suspending transactions with the said company.
(In case deliveries are substandard, Pharmally should be placed on blacklist.)
“Namumuro na sila: may ebidensya na sa pamemeke ng certificates ng face shields, nag-deliver ng nearly expired RT-PCR test kits, at may umamin, deretsahan, na iniisahan nila ang gobyerno,” she added.
(They are too much. There is already evidence of faking certificates of the face shields, they delivered nearly expired test kits and someone already confessed that the company is swindling the government.)
Over the weekend, DOH decided to suspend acceptance and deliveries of face shields from Pharmally due to its probe. This includes the supposed tampering of expiry dates on the said face shields.
“We are aware of the statements made by Pharmally employees about the tampering of the production date on the certificate,” said DOH.
Further, Hontiveros reiterated her call to Department of Budget and Management- Procurement Service (PS-DBM) to also halt transactions with Pharmally. -LDF, GMA News
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