The question remains – did Michael Yang himself have ready access to at least P7 Billion to pay manufacturers in China at the drop of a hat? Or, given the jumbling of dates and inspection reports uncovered by the Senate, is it more likely that cash advances were made by the government?
The Senate has transfixed us on the massive corruption attending government’s emergency purchase of face shields, face masks, and test kits, which yielded an overnight bonanza for youngish corporation Pharmally.
As is wont among parvenus, Pharmally executives got too eager to display new-found wealth. They purchased high-end luxury sports cars the likes of which are seldom seen on the streets of Manila.
***
The price of one of them could have built a mansion here in Iloilo.
Twinkle Dargani has a 2021 Lamborghini Urus valued at P25 million, which she registered in December last year. Her brother Mohit has a Porsche 911 worth P8.5 million.
In May this year, Linconn Ong registered a 2021 Porsche Carrera with an estimated price of P13.5 million. A couple of months later he bought a 2021 Lexus RC F valued at P5.9 million.
These are toys – grossly immoral purchases at a time when our countrymen are suffering from hunger, sickness and desolation.
***
What these people hold in common is proximity to Michael Yang –President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic adviser until the media got wind of his appointment and commented on a possible conflict of interest.
While the group gusted as a newly created corporation with a capital of less than a million pesos it was amazingly able to corner supply contracts worth billions of pesos at the DBM-PS. Possibly more than a fourth of the P42 Billion cascaded by the Department of Health to the DBM.
Once the purchase was finalized the group suddenly had access to large chunks of cash which enabled them to finance bulk purchases from manufacturers in China.
***
Was the cash from Michael Yang?
Perhaps, as expressed and implied by Pharamally executives themselves in the ongoing Senate Blue Ribbon investigation.
The cash was variously denominated as “loans” from Yang – Duterte’s friend from his days as mayor of Davao City.
A simple flip of the “loaned” cash, aided by the DBM-PS, transformed these youthful Pharmally executives into multi-millionaires who had the happy problem of where to spend sack-loads of money that would break a counting machine.
The question remains – did Michael Yang himself have ready access to at least P7 Billion to pay manufacturers in China at the drop of a hat? Or, given the jumbling of dates and inspection reports uncovered by the Senate, is it more likely that cash advances were made by the government?
***
Vice President Leni Robredo said it correctly. The Pharmally issue would not have been brought to fore without people in power helping these greedy Pharmally executives.
Robredo added that while corruption is unforgivable at any stage, it is doubly so when instigated in a raging pandemic. So many of our countrymen are suffering from untold hardship and distress.
***
Government scrimps on financial assistance to our overwrought healthcare workers, constantly citing the alleged lack of resources.
The opposite is true. There is money. But that money is being carted away by unscrupulous people, abetted by public officials who have been entrusted the duty to safekeep them for the public good.
These public officials might be principals by indispensable cooperation, or even principals by inducement in the crime of plunder. Vultures who feast on the memory of those who had died prematurely for lack of better care.
***
As of press time, the Senate has yet to track the whereabouts of Pharmally official Krizle Grace Mago who turned in a bombshell admission last Friday that their young Firm had indeed swindled government by altering expiry dates on substandard items. We can only pray that when this article sees print she is in safe hands and not under any form of duress.
In the meantime, Senators are securing the safety of Linconn Ong who has apparently signified his intention to cooperate as State witness.
We might yet see the unraveling the mother of all corruption cases in this country./WDJ