MANILA - The Senate "will not flinch" in its investigation into the procurement of allegedly overpriced pandemic supplies even after President Rodrigo Duterte criticized several senators on national television, a lawmaker said, Tuesday.

"The Senate will not flinch on this one," Sen. Panfilo Lacson said in a text message to reporters.

"The Senate investigation is still ongoing. There is a lot more to discover and pursue so that all those responsible for this abominable crime against the Filipino people who continue to suffer amid the pandemic will be exposed and charged in court at the proper time," he said.

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Duterte earlier slammed several senators who grilled Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and other executive officials during a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing last week after documents showed that the government awarded P6.8-billion worth of contracts to Pharmally, a Chinese corporation using fake addresses in its incorporation documents.

On Monday the President defended ex-adviser and Davao-based businessman Michael Yang who has been linked to Pharmally.

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"Michael Yang has been in business here in the Philippines for 20 years. Nag-umpisa 'yan sa Davao...Akala ko ba we are inviting investors?" Duterte said in a televised address.

He said Chinese officials would have tipped him off if Yang had links to drug syndicates. He also accused Sen. Richard Gordon of "Sinophobia."

Lacson said the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee would summon Yang to the next hearing.

"The video showing Michael Yang, a Chinese national who had a signed contract as a presidential consultant, receiving a one-peso-a-year remuneration from the government and introducing officials of the controversial Pharmally Corporation is telling to say the least," he said.

Senators had questioned why Pharmally - a company incorporated in 2019 with a P599,000 capital - was awarded billions-worth of government contracts when it had no track record of delivering quality and reasonably-priced materials.

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Documents showed that the Department of Budget and Management's Procurement Service (PS-DBM) bought overpriced face masks and RT-PCR test kits from the said company.

"It may be premature to directly link Sen. [Christopher] Bong Go or even PRRD (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) at this point of the inquiry on the PS-DBM’s questionable procurement of overpriced medical supplies," Lacson said.

"All I can say, as most of my colleagues are seeing in this investigation is - the plot thickens," he said.

Lacson noted that Duterte had been spewing "incoherence and senseless ad lib even in his formal addresses to the nation."

"That said, it is not difficult to think that he is in panic mode and is attempting as he has already done earlier to discourage the Senate from pursuing our investigation in the highly anomalous procurement of overpriced medical supplies that is starting to knock on the doors of Malacañang," the senator said.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee is expected to reconvene for a fourth hearing on September 7, 2021.

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