Duterte: Detention of resource person in Senate probe is abuse

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday considered as "oppression" the detention of resource persons refusing to say what senators want to hear at Senate blue ribbon committee probe on alleged overpriced pandemic supplies.

In a taped address aired on Thursday, Duterte challenged the committee to file charges against the concerned personalities if the committee has evidence.

“Pharmally o ano, idemanda na ninyo. May ebidensiya naman kaya kayo" (File charges against Pharmally or whatever if you have evidence),” he said.

“But to detain someone because you are not getting answers you want to hear is pure oppression,” he added.

Citing the Constitution, Duterte slammed the Senate committee for supposedly threatening the resource persons of imprisonment if they refuse to answer some questions.

Duterte clarified: “They are not respondents. As a matter of fact, they are called resource persons.”

“Tapos kukulungin mo? (Then you detain them?) That's a violation of the constitutional right of a person. Iyang contempt na ‘yan, it’s a very malaking question mark 'yan" (That contempt citation is very questionable), he pointed out.

Duterte, earlier, hit Senator Gordon -- who leads in the blue ribbon committee probe -- for using testimonies of dismissed Police Colonel Eduardo Acierto, who he called a “perjured witness.”

Acierto was the policeman who linked Chinese businessman Michael Yang, Duterte's former economics adviser, to the illegal drug trade.

Senators conducting the probe are establishing that Michael Yang, Duterte's former economics adviser, is linked to Pharmally Pharmaceuticals Corporation, which is being questioned for alleged overpricing of its medical supplies for the government’s  COVID-19 response.

Pharmally, a small and relatively new company, bagged over P8 billion worth of procurement deals with the government.

Earlier, senators issued a contempt citation on Yang, and moved for his arrest, together with officials of Pharmally, for allegedly being evasive during the hearings. —LBG, GMA News