SUMMARY
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MANILA, Philippines – One of the biggest scandals to rock the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte in 2021 is the string of anomalies hounding the multi-billion worth of contracts his government awarded to the notorious Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation.
What started out as an inquiry into state auditors’ findings that the Department of Health (DOH) poorly spent P67 billion of pandemic funds in 2020 later turned into a full-blown twin congressional investigation into the nitty-gritty of the Duterte government’s pandemic contracts.
The Senate blue ribbon committee hearings uncovered that Pharmally cornered P10 billion in pandemic deals between 2020 and 2021 despite it being a small, newly created firm that lacked the funds, track record, and credibility to handle big-ticket government procurement.
A Rappler investigation also revealed that Chinese businessman Michael Yang, a friend and former economic adviser of the President, has links to Pharmally through a network of companies that thrived during Duterte’s term. Pharmally officials said Yang was their financier and guarantor, although he denied this.
Among the officials embroiled in the scandal are longtime Duterte aide-turned-senator Bong Go and ex-budget undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao, a volunteer election lawyer for the President who eventually headed the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM). Lao had signed off on the Duterte government contracts with Pharmally.
As senators continued to expose Duterte’s ties with the personalities in the Pharmally controversy, the President defended his allies and directed his wrath at the Senate.
The House of Representatives, dominated by Duterte allies, followed the President’s cue and used their own hearings to counter the Senate.
Now, there is a looming constitutional crisis after Duterte barred his Cabinet officials from attending the Senate hearings. Senators retaliated and questioned the President’s memorandum before the Supreme Court.
But senators are also facing cases of their own, as Yang and Pharmally director Linconn Ong have filed petitions challenging the lawmakers’ arrest orders against them.
The Senate is undeterred, however, as the chamber detained Ong and the siblings Mohit and Twinkle Dargani for refusing to cooperate in the investigation. Ong and Mohit Dargani have since been transferred to the Pasay City Jail.
Listed below are all the articles you need to read and videos you need to watch to brush up on the Pharmally scandal, grouped under the major topics that have emerged in relation to the issue:
COA report on DOH’s misused, unused funds in 2020
- DOH’s poor use of P67 billion COVID-19 funds led to ‘missed opportunities’ – auditors
- Often-ignored COA fuels pandemic outrage vs Duterte gov’t
- COA: Audit reports made public for transparency
- Poe: Shouldn’t Ombudsman suspend Duque by now?
- [WATCH] Emotional Duque confronts COA: ‘Winarak ’nyo kami’
- Senators want expansion of risk allowance to include other health workers
- Congress: If health workers did not receive benefits ‘that’s fraud, that’s corruption’
- House leader: Everyone is suffering, Duque is not special
- Besieged COA must hire, reinforce its ‘millenniors’
- Mafia at the DOH? Lacson questions P2.7 billion in idle, expired medicines
- Lacson: DOH bought ambulances ‘overpriced by P1 million each’
- ‘Double payment’: Did DOH buy the same face shields it already paid for?
- ‘Betrayal’ of Filipinos: Senators bare cost of gov’t preference for PPE imports
- Villanueva: What happened to P14-B undelivered pandemic contracts?
- Lacson questions ‘overpriced’ DOH ambulance equipment, cellphones
- How the Duterte gov’t shut out local PPE producers during a pandemic
Pharmally’s links to Michael Yang
- Biggest pandemic supplier has links to ex-Duterte adviser Michael Yang
- Michael Yang, associates expand businesses under Duterte presidency
- Pharmally had P625,000 capital before bagging P8 billion in COVID-19 contracts
- Michael Yang was Pharmally’s financier, guarantor to Chinese suppliers
- Michael Yang denies financing Pharmally: Not me, but my ‘friends’
- Financial mystery deepens: Was Pharmally just an agent, not a supplier?
- Pharmally bags P2 billion more deals in 2021
- Senate panel issues arrest warrant vs ex-Duterte adviser Michael Yang
- Facing arrest, Michael Yang vows ‘full cooperation’ in Senate probe
- Senate summons Michael Yang’s business associate Rose Nono Lin
- Even with 2 arrest warrants, Michael Yang a no-show in Senate probe
- Senate panel summons Lin Weixiong, alleged drug personality linked to Michael Yang
- WATCH: Pangilinan calls out Michael Yang for yawning during Pharmally hearing
- Senate wants Michael Yang on immigration watch list
- Eduardo Acierto resurfaces, offers to testify vs Duterte, Michael Yang
- Lakas-CMD revokes nomination of Pharmally-linked QC congressional bet
Red flags raised over Pharmally deals
- PANOORIN: Bakit kahina-hinala ang pagkakuha ng Pharmally ng mga kontrata sa pandemya?
- Tale of pandemic face shields: Costly, overstocked, unauthorized gov’t buys
- About P550 million in COVID-19 test kits bought by DOH, PS-DBM expired
- Senate to dig deeper into ‘mystery’ of overpriced COVID-19 purchases in DBM
- Audits flag DBM’s procurement service over COVID-19 supplies
- ‘Who instructed you?’: Pharmally’s advance delivery surprises PS-DBM staff
- DBM audit shows Pharmally deliveries consistently delayed – Marcos
- PS-DBM, Pharmally deals are ‘premeditated plunder’ – Drilon
- WATCH: After absence, Pharmally chairman shows up at Senate probe
- Senate to probe deeper into Pharmally financials
- WATCH: ‘Hindi normal,’ says tax expert Mon Abrea of Pharmally’s financial records
- Pharmally did not pay employee contributions – Villanueva
- Senate summons Pharmally accountant Jeff Mariano
- DOJ: Face shield tampering violates law, but needs complaint vs Pharmally
- Rigged favors for Pharmally, substandard supplies are graft – senators
- Pharmally pandemic items sold to DOTr ‘overpriced’ by at least 62% – Hontiveros
- TigerPhil Marketing, Pharmally’s supplier, flagged for possible tax evasion
- Senate finds Pharmally tax records with P3.4 billion ‘unsupported purchases’
- [VIDEO EDITORIAL] Binudol ng Pharmally ang taumbayan
- [ANALYSIS] ‘Whiff of corruption’? Umaalingasaw na ang Pharmally
Anomalies in contracts signed by PS-DBM
- Who is Lloyd Christopher Lao, Davao boy dragged into controversies?
- Senate summons ex-DBM exec Lao to explain overpriced face masks, shields
- Senators grill Lao: Firm awarded P8 billion in COVID-19 contracts without vetting?
- PS-DBM bought near-expired Pharmally test kits for double markup
- DOH failed to spend P2.07 billion after parking it in PS-DBM in 2020
- Ex-DBM exec Lao admits ‘possibility’ of negligence in overpriced COVID-19 purchases
- WATCH: High demand kaya mahal? Sa Filipinas lang required ang face shields
- Appointed due to connections? Senators doubt Lao qualified as budget undersecretary
- ‘Parang Grab lang’: Pharmally delivers masks a few hours after PS-DBM inquires
- ‘Pandemic profit’: Drilon, Lacson stress need to dig into PS-DBM contracts
- PS-DBM gave free use of military ships and planes to China suppliers
- Recto hits ‘pasa-buy,’ the gov’t practice of passing funds to PS-DBM
- WATCH: Former PS-DBM official says ‘fake inspection’ done for Chinese suppliers
- Amid corruption probes, bills seek to abolish PS-DBM, PITC
- ‘May naglilinis’: Pangilinan says PS-DBM deleted files earlier submitted to Senate
- WATCH: ‘What’s so funny?’ says Pangilinan as Lao smirks at senators’ questions
- How Duterte’s Bayanihan and ex-DBM chief Avisado’s circular can protect PS-DBM
- ‘Atmosphere of suasion’: PS-DBM processed payment without delivery after meeting by Lao
- Senate panel cites ex-budget exec Lao in contempt for snubbing hearings
- Senate orders arrest of ex-budget exec Lao
- Senate panel’s 2022 budget provision to block parked funds in PS-DBM
- Ex-DBM exec Lao asks Senate to reconsider arrest order, but Gordon says no
Bombshell testimony then recantation of Pharmally’s Krizle Mago
- ‘We swindled gov’t’: Pharmally changed expiry date of medical-grade face shields
- 2 days after bombshell testimony, Pharmally exec can’t be contacted by Senate panel
- After startling admission, Pharmally’s Krizle Mago absent in Senate hearing
- Pharmally’s Krizle Mago surfaces, now under House’s protection
- Pharmally’s Krizle Mago recants Senate testimony: ‘It was a pressured response’
- Pharmally still changed expiration dates despite Mago retracting
- Pharmally’s Mago says DOH did not require medical-grade face shields
- Senators not surprised with Mago recanting testimony: ‘She made a deal with the devil’
- Senate confronts Pharmally’s Mago after recanted testimony
Senate arrest of Linconn Ong, Mohit and Twinkle Dargani
- Pharmally executives buy luxury cars after bagging pandemic contracts
- Senate panel to arrest Michael Yang, Pharmally exec for ‘lying’ in probe
- Pharmally exec’s GF puts up P10-M firm during pandemic, then gets DOH deal
- Pharmally exec Linconn Ong declines executive session with senators
- Grilled over stock investments, Pharmally’s Dargani invokes right to remain silent
- Auditor admits: I never saw Pharmally invoices
- Yang, Lao, Pharmally officials did not file proper tax returns – Drilon
- Pharmally executives Mohit, Twinkle Dargani arrested at Davao City airport
- Gordon: Dargani siblings’ jet flight ‘clear sign of guilt’
- Undeclared income? Dargani siblings paid over P1.8 million for getaway flight
- ‘No special treatment’: Senate sends Pharmally’s Dargani, Ong to Pasay City Jail
- Emotional Dargani denies fleeing from Senate probe: We just want to be safe
- Pharmally’s Ong distances self from the comments of his lawyer on Senate probe
- ‘Sue us instead’: Jailed Pharmally execs still won’t budge over missing documents
- [WATCH] ‘I don’t know anything’: Pharmally exec turns emotional over missing documents
- Lawyer of Dargani siblings used to work for Malacañang
Duterte and House attack the Senate
- Duterte insists no corruption in DOH, refuses to fire Duque
- Malacañang on COA reports: ‘Cool po muna tayo’
- After slamming COA, Duterte hits lawmakers’ hearings on pandemic spending
- Duterte should see COA as ally vs corruption, says House leader
- Senators hit Duterte’s rants vs probes: ‘Brush up on checks and balances’
- Gordon says Senate may end up probing Duterte, Go over pandemic deals
- [WATCH] Gordon to Duterte: Instead of calling me fat, respond to overspending allegations
- Bong Go melts down, says Gordon ‘bullying’ him in Senate probe
- Gordon claps back at Duterte: ‘You are a cheap politician, Mr. President!’
- WATCH: Gordon gets emotional as senators express support amid pandemic probe
- House panel hits Senate: Pharmally probe is ‘in aid of election’
- [PODCAST] Beyond the Stories: Banggaan ng Senado at Kamara sa imbestigasyon sa Pharmally
- In DOH probe, congressmen hand the mic to Duterte gov’t
- Duterte to Red Cross: Where is your required annual report?
- House panel takes cue from Duterte, targets Red Cross
- Lawmaker: If face shields were expired, did anyone die?
- Duterte likens Senate hearings on Pharmally to martial law
- To attack Senate, Marcoleta uses wrong case title vs a power that House also uses
- Cyberattack hits Gordon’s website as Pharmally probe continues
- Drilon: House breached inter-parliamentary courtesy by hitting Senate’s Pharmally probe
- ‘Tit for tat’: Duterte dangles non-release of budget over senators
- Rappler Talk Newsmaker: Franklin Drilon on Pharmally and friction between Duterte, Senate
Pharmally issue reaches the Supreme Court
- Duterte: Cabinet officials must get presidential approval to appear in Senate probes
- Furious Duterte seeks to block Cabinet, witnesses from appearing in Senate probe
- Blocking Cabinet from Senate probe spells ‘constitutional crisis’
- Despite Duterte’s threats, Roque says Cabinet will still attend Senate probe
- ‘Blatantly unconstitutional’: Executive officials obey Duterte memo, ignore Senate hearing
- Guevarra asks for ‘compromise’ in Duterte’s ‘unconstitutional’ snub order vs Senate
- Duterte dares Senate committee to take snub order to Supreme Court
- Pharmally exec wants SC to void Senate power vs evasive witnesses
- Michael Yang goes to Supreme Court to make Senate back off
- ‘Unacceptable’: Drilon hits Guevarra on Duterte memo
- Duque tells Senate he’ll raise Duterte memo vs Pharmally probe with Malacañang
- [PODCAST] Seat of Power: Duterte’s ‘unconstitutional’ memo
- Duterte welcomes Senate’s SC challenge of his memo barring Cabinet from probe
- Senate seeks SC challenge vs Duterte’s gag order on Cabinet
- Senate asks Supreme Court to void Duterte order barring Cabinet from probe
- [ANALYSIS] Duterte’s unconstitutional orders
Congressman restricts Rappler reporter’s access
- Lawmaker restricts access of Rappler reporter after story on Pharmally face shields
- Bakit ako pumalag kay Congressman Michael Aglipay
– Rappler.com
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