Sotto orders release of Twinkle Dargani due to COVID-19

Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Monday approved the release of Twinkle Dargani, head of the beleaguered Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, from Senate detention for humanitarian considerations.

In a statement, Sotto said he and Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, agreed to release Twinkle to her mom, Deepa Dargani, after she tested positive for COVID-19.

Sotto ordered the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms General Rene Samonte to free Twinkle  on Monday night.

She tested positive for the coronavirus disease and was transferred to Philippine General Hospital but returned to the Senate, Sotto said.

Twinkle's swab test returned positive on January 7. She has very mild symptoms.

Deepa was also worried about Twinkle's "deteriorating mental health condition," Sotto said.

“Her mother has promised to present her to the Senate whenever she is needed by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee,” Sotto said.

Currently, the upper chamber is also under lockdown until Sunday, January 16, after at least 46 staff members contracted COVID-19.

Senators Sherwin Gatchalian, Panfilo Lacson, and Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan have also tested positive for the virus.

The Senate blue ribbon committee is investigating the the he transfer of P42 billion COVID-19 funds made by the Department of Health to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).

The PS-DBM also had a questionable transaction with Pharmally, which bagged P8.6 billion contracts on COVID-19 equipment despite having a  P625,000 paid-up capital.

Samonte said the Senate doctor would check on Twinkle before her departure. The required paperwork are also being readied.

"We will be waiting for her mother to pick her up tonight. In the meantime, I asked our attending Senate doctor, Dr. [Renato] Sison [Jr.] to subject Twinkle to medical check, vital signs, for proper turn over to whichever facility she will be brought," Samonte said.

Sison is the director of the Senate's Medical and Dental Bureau.

'House arrest'

In a letter to Sotto, Gordon proposed that Twinkle be placed under house arrest given her recent infection but must follow these conditions:

• During the continuation of the hearings, she stays in her home and in no other place;
• She makes herself available every time there is a hearing;
• She undertakes NOT to leave her home while the investigation has not yet been  terminated NOR to leave the Philippines;
• She undertakes to update our Committee of her health condition/s every week;
• She further undertakes to faithfully comply with any additional conditions that this Committee may deem necessary to ensure her genuine cooperation with the investigation of the Senate.

"All of that said, however, I, in my capacity as Chairman, am not blind to the raging epidemic that has afflicted tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters; neither are we insensitive to the fact that Ms. Dargani has herself tested positive for COVID-19," Gordon said. —NB, GMA News