Duterte mulls barring Cabinet execs from testifying before congressional probes

President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened not to allow Cabinet members to attend congressional probes because of alleged disrespectful treatment from senators.

"I will not allow any member of the Cabinet to go to Congress to testify kung ganun ang treatment (if they are treated that way)," Duterte said in a taped address Tuesday.

Duterte made the pronouncement as he questioned the ongoing Senate probe on the Health Department's P67-billion deficient spending of COVID-19 response funds, including government purchase of alleged overpriced face mask and face shield.

Duterte said he issued the same directive to military officials.

"Kung sabihin i-contempt kayo, sige (if you get cited in contempt, fine)...in 24 hours, mag-isip ako paano kita kunin (I will find a way to extract you)," he  added.

He was referring to Congress' authority to hold witness or resource person in contempt and detain them if they refuse to  honestly answer questions from members of Congress. 

'Send someone to jail'

During the same address, Duterte challenged senators to send someone to jail over alleged irregularities in the government’s purchases for its COVID-19 response.

"Yung bidding, yung procurement na sabi ninyo mali todohin ninyo ang imbestigasyon at kung may kulong, ikulong ninyo. Hinahamon ko na kayo. 'Pag wala kayong makulong dito wala kayo," Duterte said.

(I am asking the senators to conduct a full investigation into what they claim as a flawed procurement process. I am challenging you. If you cannot send someone to jail over this, then it’s all for naught.)

Duterte said the emergency procurement of various medical supplies followed existing laws and guidelines.

"In order to address the lack of supplies, the entire government worked together to find a way to procure all the supplies even when all countries in the world were doing the same. The emergency procurement process needed to be resorted to get what we needed quickly because people were dying," he said.

"The price of PPE (personal protective equipment) and other supplies are fair and reasonable because they were even cheaper than the old prices."

He also said the Department of Health had to rely on other government agencies such as the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (DBM-PS) because they lacked the manpower.

"You are not an island by yourself," the President said.

Former DBM-PS head Christopher Lloyd Lao earlier stated that there might be possible negligence on his part in the procurement of expensive face masks and face shields during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

"When you say that there might be negligence or we were not able to exhaustively look for the cheapest supplier, there might be a possibility given the scenario that we lack time, we lack the resources, the connection during that time, that might be a possibility," he told senators in a hearing last Friday. 

Senators have been grilling the DBM-PS and the DOH over the transfer of the P42-billion fund to the procuring agency. — RSJ, GMA News