Duterte prefers House probe into 'overpriced' medical goods over Senate's 'witch-hunt'

President Rodrigo Duterte has expressed preference to the investigation being conducted by the House of Representatives regarding the allegedly overpriced medical items procured by the government over the one being conducted by the Senate.

In a taped address aired on Thursday, Duterte once again attacked Senator Richard Gordon, who is leading the Senate investigation, calling him a "despot" and a "pathological storyteller."

“We can’t get a thorough answer from the Senate because it is presided over by a despot, Gordon, who does the talking," Duterte said.

"He can’t help but talk and he interrupts the resource persons with questions and cutting them off and providing the answers that the answer of the resource persons could never have been completed. Di kumpleto kasi binabara niya to the point that the witness is following his theory na may corruption,” he added.

"Mabuti na lang ang House, they allowed the witnesses to talk.”

More sane

Duterte also said the House inquiry is "more sane" compared to the one at the Senate.

"I'm happy that the House initiated a congressional inquiry into the alleged misuse of funds," he said. "It is the more sane inquiry."

Portions of the House inquiry held Wednesday were shown during the public address, including the part where former Procurement Service director Warren Rex Lliong maintained that there was no overpricing in the purchases.

"What was established in the lower house? Go back to what we're saying from the very start -- that there was no overpricing which our senators are trying so desperately to establish," Duterte said.

Duterte said resource persons were like in an “inquest stage” of an investigation during the Senate hearings, while in the House they are “devoid of rudeness and partiality.”

“Ang lower House walang Gordon,” Duterte said, calling the Senate probe a “witch-hunt.”

"At least sa House you'd have a fair chance of having your story being heard with courtesy, with no pathological legislator bullying you to no end," the President added.

Duterte said he is not picking up a fight against the entire Senate, explaining that his only problem was with Gordon. --KBK, GMA News