Pharmally exec Ong maintains non-participation in Senate probe over purchase of COVID-19 items

Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. director Linconn Ong maintained Tuesday that he no longer wants to participate in the Senate blue ribbon committee's  investigation into the Health Department’s purchase of COVID-19 supplies last year.

According to Senate blue ribbon committee oversight office management director-general Rodolfo Quimbo, Ong, who was present in the investigation, emphasized that this was due to their rights under the company's code of confidentiality.

"We sent [a] letter to Mr. Lincoon Ong through his lawyer. Mr. Ong, so far as the documents is concerned, stated that he is not participating anymore in this proceeding nor he is transmitting anything, reiterating their supposed rights under the corporation's code on confidentiality," Quimbo said at the start of the resumption of the inquiry.

Ong is presently under Senate custody.

Senator Franklin Drilon, meanwhile, said there is nothing in the corporation code which justifies the withholding of information.

"These are matters of public interest, these are matters submitted being asked of them in relation to this inquiry and this is in performance of our constitutional duty," Drilon said.

"There is nothing in the Revised Corporation Code, if I may state we wrote that law, we see nothing there which will justify the invocation of any of its provisions," he added.

On the other hand, Twinkle Dargani, president of Pharmally, failed to attend the probe as she experienced a panic attack, according to her brother Mohit Dargani. Her lawyer, Attorney Donn Rico Kapunan, said they will send a medical certificate to the panel in relation to this.

Krizle Mago

Meanwhile, Krizle Mago, the Pharmally executive who recanted her Senate testimony about supposed tampering of face shields' expiration dates when she testified at the House of Representatives, was present virtually in the investigation.

Mago is presently under House custody. After she made the controversial admission in the Senate blue ribbon committee, she became unreachable, prompting the Senate to ask the National Bureau of Investigation's assistance to find her.

Mago then sought protective custody from the House of Representatives and resurfaced last Friday, October 1.

In House committee on good government and public accountability hearing on Monday, Mago said her previous remark that Pharmally had “swindled” the government when it tampered with the expiration dates of face shields was just a "pressured response."

Mago stressed that Pharmally had never delivered damaged items to the government, noting that the firm conducted routine quality inspection of its inventory prior to making deliveries. — RSJ, GMA News