Senate witness denies bribery allegation, says he reached out to Hontiveros

The Senate witness on Thursday belied the claims of his former colleague that the office of Senator Risa Hontiveros bribed him to testify on the “substandard” face shields.

In a virtual press conference, Hontiveros; lawyer Jaye Bekema, the legislative staff accused of bribery; and the witness faced the media.

They countered anew the bribery allegations made by Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation through lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, the legal counsel of Pharmally director Linconn Ong.

Bekema outrightly denied that she bribed the witness into lying before the Senate blue ribbon committee.

“I categorically and absolutely deny bribing the witness into lying. Hindi po ako nanuhol, wala po sa opisina ni Sen. Risa, maging si Sen. Risa, ang nanuhol,” she said.

(I did not bribe anyone. No one from our office and even Sen. Risa bribed anyone.)

“Kahit kailanman hindi kami bumibili ng testimonya, lahat po ng witness ay kusang loob na lumalapit sa amin,” she added.

(We never buy a person’s testimony. All of our witnesses have come forward and offered their testimonies.)

Bekema said it was the witness who sent an e-mail to Hontiveros’ office on September 9 and his claims were verified several times before it was disclosed in the last Senate hearing on the alleged overpriced pandemic supplies.

“I want to emphasize po that our witness executed an affidavit, nanumpa po siya sa harap ng batas at sinabi sa kanya mismo ng notary public na siya ay mapaparusahan kung siya ay nagsinungaling,” Bekema said.

(He has sworn before the law and he was told by the notary public that he could be punished if he lied.)

“We secured his safety after as we do all our witnesses. We have evidence screenshots, photos, and records of conversations, records of text conversations na magpapatunay sa lahat ng sinabi ko (that will prove my claim),” she added.

The witness was present in the virtual press conference and backed Bekema’s statement.

“Ako po 'yung unang nag-email sa page po ni Sen. Risa Hontiveros po para humingi ng tulong po… Gusto ko lang po i-share doon ‘yung mga anomalya sa ginagawa namin na face shield,” the witness said.

(I was the one who sent an email to the page of Sen. Risa Hontiveros to ask for help. I want to share the anomalies that we did on the face shields.)

“Kusang loob ko pong sinabi sa inyo. Wala naman po akong pagbayad na hiningi po sa inyo,” he added, noting that Krizle Grace Mago, an employee of Pharmally, herself admitted to the tampering of the expiry dates of the face shields.

(I volunteered to give my testimonies. I did not ask for money in exchange for my testimony.)

On Thursday, Topacio shared a video of another Pharmally warehouse staff, claiming that Hontiveros’ witness was bribed by Bekema to testify before the Senate hearing.

The Pharmally employee who was seen on the video shared by Topacio said they can prove that they do not repack substandard face shields, contrary to the claim of Hontiveros’ witness.

Hontiveros earlier said that they have receipts to prove that they did not bribe their witness.

She pointed out that even Mago admitted that the firm has “swindled” the government.

Senators have been investigating the purchase of COVID-19 supplies made by the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service last year, during which Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation bagged more than P8 billion in government contracts for the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPEs), which were alleged to be overprice.—AOL, GMA News