Senate checks out other ‘suppliers’ of supplier Pharmally

SENATE probers are poised to dig deeper into the records of medical suppliers that provided personal protective equipment (PPE) sold to Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, the low-capitalized startup that cornered over P8 billion in PPE contracts from government.

This, as senators expanded their inquiry to cover other companies that initially supplied Pharmally with face masks and other medical supplies, which some senators deem overpriced.

Senate sources indicated this include Tiger Phil Marketing, said to be run by “Brother Tiger” and one “Wang Jie.”

Testifying at the Senate inquiry, Pharmally supply chain manager Lincoln Ong tagged the two among the suppliers that delivered the medical supplies to Pharmally to enable it to deliver on its commitment to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management. The PS-DBM is the unit to which the Department of Health had transferred P42 billion of its pandemic funds, in a move flagged by state auditors.

During Monday’s hearing, presided by Blue Ribbon chairman Richard

J. Gordon, Sen. Imee Marcos asked Senate probers to also obtain the suppliers’ records at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

This, as Marcos uncovered a “P2billion variance” between Pharmally’s total contract value and tax returns filed with BIR.

Citing a COA report, Marcos noted that from April to June 2020, Pharmally was awarded P9.06-billion in contracts, but records show Pharmally listed only P7.485 billion in sales in its ITR.

“Why was not the full amount of all contracts awarded, or P9B, declared in ITR,” she asked adding: “But there was P2 billion in underdeclaration?”

Told by Pharmally officials that the nearly P2-billion variance stemmed from the fact that not all of the contracted items had been delivered as of the time of ITR filing, Marcos asked why. When told that Pharmally received a “letter from PS-DBM” telling it to delay deliveries, the senator was aghast, and pointed out that these PPE items were supposedly urgently needed last year, so why should an order to “delay deliveries” be issued?