President defends medical supply deals under Senate probe

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo R. Duterte has defended his former economic adviser Michael Yang, who had been linked to the illegal drug trade, after the Chinese businessman was implicated in another controversy involving the Budget department’s procurement of overpriced medical supplies.

Mr. Yang is back in the headlines after Senator Richard J. Gordon played a Radio Television Malacañang video in a Senate hearing last week showing him introducing officials of Taiwan-based Pharmally International to Mr. Duterte in March 2017.

Pharmally’s local subsidiary, Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., bagged about P8.68 billion worth of pandemic-related medical supply deals last year.

“Michael Yang has been in business for 20 years, he started in Davao,” Mr. Duterte said in taped Cabinet meeting. “Hindi iyan ang Instik na kinukunan ko ng pera (That is not the Chinese from whom I get money).”

The President said he has no reason to doubt the Davao-based businessman as he had been present in his official meetings with former Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua.

Senators have questioned why Pharmally, which was registered with the Securities and Exchange of Commission in 2019 with a paid-up capital of only P625,000, was awarded government contracts worth billions when it had yet to establish the required track record.

Meanwhile, the tough-talking leader waged personal attacks against Senator Richard J. Gordon, Sr. and other senators for grilling former Budget undersecretary Christopher Lloyd Lao, who signed the Pharmally deals, in previous senate hearings.

Mr. Gordon, reacting to

Mr. Duterte’s tirades, said the President should question those involved in the controversial deals and not the investigators.

The senator also took a jab at the President saying he forgives him for the insults because personal attacks are only done by the weak.