Pharmally redux
For the millions of Filipinos who had writhed in sorrow and survived the virulent enemy that roared through their lives, may justice come down at last like a cooling rain. And may the guilty who caused pain rot in jail, and eat the bitter fruits of their evil deeds in their remaining years. May they look back with regret and behold the remnants of their ill-gotten wealth, all in ruins.
Many of us are eager to know how the Pharmally cases that stank of corruption and added to our distress during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic that lasted three years (2020 to 2022) under the Rodrigo Duterte presidency, would play out in court—at last. And whether those who robbed the nation blind while millions of Filipinos were dying or dead would get their comeuppance. More than 70,000 Filipinos lost their lives to COVID-19 during those Duterte years.
Former secretary of justice and newly appointed Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla last week ordered a recall and a review of the Pharmally-related cases that had been filed with the antigraft court Sandiganbayan, and where there have been no arraignments yet. These were cases that had to do with the government’s purchase of overpriced medical supplies from a brazenly favored company, namely Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. Remulla described them as “buried in oblivion.” But some wonder whether his move was a diversionary tactic. I hope not.
Such a move, even while jaw-dropping, massive corruption involving government infrastructure projects (flood control, farm-to-market roads, road reblocking, name it) is being investigated and giving rise to huge citizens’ rallies; even while earthquakes are hitting different parts of the country almost on a daily basis, with active volcanoes and typhoons not to be outdone; even while “Metro Manilans” and those in the surrounding provinces are bracing for the ”Big One” “because it is not a matter of if, but of when.”
Pharmally, the supplier that was under Senate investigation in 2021, was registered only in late 2019, with a capital of P645,000 or so, an amount not even enough to buy a small car. And yet Pharmally bagged a P11.5-billion contract with the government to provide medical supplies (face masks and shields, personal protective equipment, and COVID-19 testing kits) to the Department of Health. Worse, their expiry dates were allegedly altered and advanced. An interesting footnote: at that time, Pharmally chair Huang Tzu Yen had a standing warrant of arrest in Taiwan for an alleged crime. That made the plot even thicker.
Remember how local manufacturers lamented at the Senate hearings that they felt left out, if not betrayed. For how could a government hand over P11.5 billion to a foreign supplier when ready local suppliers could have made lower offers? But instead of encouraging the Senate blue ribbon committee’s investigation, Duterte went on a bashing spree, even going personal with comments on the senators’ physical looks, body weight, hairstyle, and all. Worse, he threatened to prevent his Cabinet officials from showing up and revealing what they knew.
What became clear was the staggering amount involved in the purchase of medical supplies from a foreign supplier. This was via the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget Management during the watch of its officer in charge, presidential appointee and frat brod Lloyd Christopher Lao.
Remember Pharmally executive Krizie Grace Mago, who was summoned to the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing headed by then Sen. Richard Gordon? To Gordon’s question, “Did you swindle the government?” Mago answered, “Yes, your Honor.” It was a bombshell of a “yes” that made the next day’s headlines.
Was Mago’s “yes” a spur-of-the-moment decision or a deliberate one she had thought of before she went to the Senate hearing? A last resort? An escape route? Mago was, after all, not the big fish but lower in the Pharmally corporate hierarchy.
It seemed like there was nowhere else for her to go. To use clichés, she was between a rock and a hard place, between the devil and the deep blue sea. But on second thought, that needn’t have been the case as far as she was concerned. She might have seen herself as between damnation and redemption, and there was a way out. Abort flight, or perish.
Where is Mago now—that is the big question. She seemed to have vanished after the Senate investigation. Remulla should better make sure that Mago is alive, well, and in the vicinity.
On my part, I did not want to see the pandemic years to be “buried in oblivion.” And so my latest book, “COVID-19 in the News: Of Seekers, Scoundrels and Saints” (Ateneo de Manila University, 2023), with photos and caricatures, is dedicated to the Filipino health-care frontliners who risked and lost their lives during the pandemic in the midst of anomalies.
May we never forget, but may justice be done though the heavens fall. Prison for the guilty.
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