MANILA — Crime does pay.

Sen. Richard Gordon said this Friday after some members of the Senate blue ribbon committee did not sign a report into the alleged multibillion-peso anomalies in the procurement of COVID-19 supplies between the government and Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation.

Lack of approval of the majority of the 20 committee members means the Senate cannot make any formal recommendations to relevant authorities about its findings.

"Ang totoo niyan ang talagang nakatakas ay si [ex-presidential economic adviser] Michael Yang. Hindi nagbabayad ng tax. Since 1999, hindi nagbabayad ng tax," Gordon told TeleRadyo.

"Sinasabi ng BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) hinabol nila pero wala na tayong balita kung anong nangyari."

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Aside from Gordon, the 8 senators who signed the draft report are Franklin Drilon, Panfilo Lacson, Manny Pacquiao, Leila de Lima, Koko Pimentel, Kiko Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros and Ralph Recto.

Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri and Sherwin Gatchalian have said they refused to sign Gordon’s report because of the inclusion of President Rodrigo Duterte’s name.

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The committee wrapped its months-long investigation on the government's supposed mishandling of COVID-19 pandemic funds in January.

It found that Pharmally bagged some P11 billion in contracts from the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management despite having only P625,000 in capital and no track record at all in supplying to the government.

Among those the chamber found suspicious were: Pharmally delivering 500,000 face masks ahead of purchase order; its failure to show deeds for P33 million worth of donations to the government; and documents on Pharmally-DBM deals suddenly going missing, among others.

Pharmally chairperson Huang Tzu Yen earlier told senators the company had to borrow money from Yang to finance the procurement of face masks and RT-PCR test kits.

The draft report recommended the filing of cases against Pharmally officials; Michael Yang, President Rodrigo Duterte's former economic adviser; former Budget Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

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A separate investigation by House lawmakers recommended the filing of syndicated estafa charges against several Pharmally officials but spared both Yang and Lao, saying there was not enough evidence to go after them.

During an Oct. 28, 2021 hearing, senators said Yang did not file his income tax returns from the year 2014 up to 2017, citing information from the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

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This was "based on the verification made by the District's Collection Section," the presentation read.

"The ITRs for 2014 to 2017 could not be found in the records (Document Processing Division)."

But Yang paid P7,600 worth of taxes in 2018 from his taxable income P208,000.

His records for 2018 and 2019, however, are "unreadable."

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