Pharmally’s Ong asks SC to order his release from Senate custody

Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation director Linconn Ong on Thursday challenged his continued detention at the Senate before the Supreme Court (SC).

Ong, through legal counsel Ferdinand Topacio, asked the SC to release him from Senate custody, according to a tweet from dzBB’s Manny Vargas.

The Pharmally official reportedly urged the high court to declare unconstitutional the authority of the Senate to detain a resource person who has been cited in contempt for testifying “falsely or evasively.”

Named respondents to the petition were the Senate Blue Ribbon committee and its chairperson, Senator Richard Gordon; Senate President Vicente Sotto III; and retired Major General Rene Samonte of the Senate sergeant-at-arms.

Ong has been under the custody of the Senate since September 21 after he was cited in contempt due to his "evasive responses" to the senators' questions regarding the alleged overpriced medical supplies purchased by the government from Pharmally at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

On Tuesday, Ong maintained that he no longer wanted to participate in the investigation, citing rights under the Corporation Code.

Senator Franklin Drilon, however, said there is nothing in the law that justifies the withholding of information.

Topacio previously said that Ong was subjected to “mental torture” while in detention at the Senate. He added that Ong was deprived of access to his mobile phone and other gadgets.

Senators have been scrutinizing the purchases of COVID-19 supplies made by the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service last year, during which Pharmally bagged billions of pesos in government contracts.

Duterte has officially barred Executive department officials and employees from attending the investigation, a move the Philippine Bar Association (PBA) said “upsets our systems of checks and balances.”

Both the PBA and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines have since asked Duterte to reconsider his decision. — VBL, GMA News