Drilon sees no reason yet to invite Duterte to Senate probe

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Sunday said there was no reason yet to invite President Rodrigo Duterte to a Senate investigation on the government's procurement of allegedly overpriced COVID-19 medical supplies.

In a Super Radyo dzBB interview, Drilon was asked if Duterte would be invited to the Senate probe after the Chief Executive defended Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, which was involved in the procurement.

"Sa ngayon, wala naman akong nakikitang dahilan na magbigay ng invitation sa Pangulo. Wala pa akong nakikitang sapat na dahilan," the senator said.

(For now, we are not seeing any reason to invite the President. I am not seeing enough reason to summon him.)

In his previous taped address, Duterte also defended Chinese businessman Michael Yang, a former presidential economic adviser, over the businessman's links to Pharmally.

Duterte also defended other Chinese suppliers getting contracts during the pandemic.

But Drilon reiterated his concern on how Pharmally bagged multi-million government contracts despite having P625,000 as its capital.

The senator also pointed out that under the law, a company must have the financial capacity for government transactions.

"Kasi kung ganyan ang sistema, yung nagtitinda ng sigarilyo diyan sa kanto ay pwede na ring maging supplier at makipag-transact ng milyun-milyon at bahala na kung ma-deliver o hindi," Drilon said.

(If we follow that system, someone who is selling cigarettes at a street corner could be a supplier and could have multi-million transactions and it doesn't matter if it could be delivered or not.)

— DVM, GMA News