Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon grills Pharmally officials over missing deeds of donation during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on September 17, 2021. Screenshot from virtual hearing
MANILA - Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp officials on Friday failed to show formal deeds of donation for the P33-million worth of goods they allegedly gave to several Philippine government entities.
Pharmally earlier claimed they gave donations to the Philippine government worth P33 million, which senators flagged as “unusual” coming from a small company with an initial capitalization of P599,000.
"Aya," the secretary of Pharmally secretary and treasurer Mohit Dargani, just gave a list of donation recipients, company auditor Iluminada Sebial told the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
Sebial said, the list of beneficiaries included the following government institutions:
- Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM)
- Taguig City Hall
- VRP Medical Center
- San Juan City Hall
- Quezon City Hall
- Quezon City Council
- Provincial Government of Cavite
- Navotas City Hall
"Mayroon pa pong iba pa [nabinigyan ng donations] pero hindi po nila na-submit sa akin ang mga papeles... Listahan lang po ang binigay nila," she said.
(There were other recipients but they did not submit the papers to me... They only gave me a list.)
Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairman Richard Gordon noted that Sebial may have violated her oath as an accountant as she did not record verified documents of the company's donations.
"So that's a violation. An accountant is in violation of her oath because she's supposed to record verified documents," he said.
Dargani said he only met Sebial through the hearings as Pharmally has been relying on an outsourced accounting firm.
"I have never met her or communicated with her," he said.
When pressed for more details about Pharmally's undocumented donations, company Director Linconn Ong told senators that he could not remember the details, including the person who approved the list of beneficiaries.
"I'm not really sure about the records," he said.
The Senate panel earlier cited Ong in contempt and moved for his arrest after senators found that he has been giving "evasive" and conflicting statements.
Ong earlier tried to dodge questions about former Presidential Economic Adviser Michael Yang's involvement in Pharmally's transactions with the Department of Budget and Management's Procurement Service, but eventually admitted that they borrowed funds from the Davao-based businessman to purchase pandemic supplies for the national government.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon moved to subpoena all financial documents of Pharmally, and moved to suspend the hearing so that senators can further review the papers.
Drilon said he also wants to find out if the company paid the 6 percent donor’s tax mandated by law for the supposed donations.
The Senate panel has also agreed to hire a forensic accountant to review Pharmally's transactions and declarations.
The Senate Blue Ribbon, which is looking into government's allegedly anomalous deal with Pharmally to procure billions in pandemic supplies, will resume proceedings on Sept. 21.