Third of a series

THE third part of this series focuses on President Rodrigo Duterte. The controversial human rights violations resulting from Duterte's war against illegal drugs, which killed thousands, both innocent and guilty, is one of the greatest blights on his legacy defining his presidency. Recently, this caught America's reading public with the publication of a book by Patricia Evangelista, a young, feisty Filipino journalist and now best-selling author. Her "Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country" (Penguin, Random House) landed on the New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2023. The Atlantic Monthly describes it as a "...riveting book... an extraordinary testament to half a decade of state-sanctioned terror."

This column will stick to the main theme of this series, profiles of corruption post-Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. Offhand, this is a cursory study of the evils of well-publicized scandals that have been relegated to the backburner. Our intent is for the current president Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to revive the investigations of these corruption cases. Having gone full circle from his father's martial law regime to his more open and democratic administration, my thesis is if he could resolve these scandals and bring the perpetrators to justice for the remaining years of his presidency — even for this alone — he could still be a good president, nay, a great one! And perhaps in the process, he could rehabilitate his father's image — or at least mitigate the nadir of governance in the annals of Philippine history.



Pharmally, Covid-19 and PS-DBM-DoH

Among the many blights of the Duterte regime, this is perhaps the most shameful. For the simple reason, as I wrote back then: "All these occurring during the country's highest regime of pain and trauma, the continued harvest of dead souls through mismanagement of the pandemic and its resultant economic devastation. The repercussions are wide and long-term, and the aftermath is grim. The leadership of today's branches of government will be answerable to the generations to come."

Excerpts from my past columns: "...when Covid-19 struck in early 2020, government rushed in to introduce grandiose-sounding laws — the Bayanihan to Heal As One (and Two) — by granting the president emergency powers. These laws were altogether an appropriate and worthy response. But as always, the devil is in the details. It allowed the primary tools for corruption: negotiated bids on contrived tender failures and sleight-of-hand funds transfers — with leakages somewhere in between; employing obscure patsies 'backed by the powerful.'"

The Senate Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations (blue ribbon committee) performed its mandate, and the chairman, Sen. Richard Gordon, up for reelection and who previously ran for president and lost, saw the opportunity to build up his political stock. As is the wont of numerous Senate blue ribbon committee hearings — in aid of legislation — Gordon and his cohorts used the investigation as a platform to grandstand the discovery of facts for later litigation, secondary. An afterthought!

Blue ribbon findings

What was established by the blue ribbon was that the scam was perpetrated in the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), with the culpable bureaucracy appallingly exploiting a world crisis brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. The details have by now been digested by the public that the Department of Health (DoH), with the acquiescence of Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd, illegally transferred P42 billion of its funds to the procurement service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) to outsource the bidding and purchase of PPE and other related, pandemic supplies; that the PS-DBM bought overpriced surgical masks from various suppliers but favoring the under-capitalized (P625,000 paid-up) Chinese subsidiary Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. (Pharmally) with a zero track record, but topping more than P8.7 billion in government contracts.

The paper trail led to financial transactions and bureaucratic slippages that indicated the Chinese perpetrators, along with their local business partners and government officials, may also have been conduits of drug money laundered through these operations. Heading this cabal was Duterte's "economic adviser" Michael Yang, a shadowy mainland Chinese figure, Pharmally's financier and guarantor, linked to illegal drugs, known by his many labels — consultant, facilitator, bagman, pagador, or locally, bugaw (pimp), depending on the package offered and bought. The stink has diffused to high heavens and even the presidency and will not dissipate on Duterte's simple denial of innocence, contrived anger and say-so, demanding that he be taken on faith.

In August 2019, Christopher Lao, an obscure lawyer but well connected to the Davao mafia in Malacañang, was appointed undersecretary at the DBM and headed the PS-DBM. As soon as he settled down, he began executing these anomalous transactions. This patsy was at the center of this maelstrom.

Investigations postscript

Despite the overwhelming evidence presented at the blue ribbon, Senator Gordon was unable to elevate his report to the Senate plenary, as it lacked the requisite number of signatures from the senators. According to Gordon, the senators refused to sign the report because it included a recommendation for the filing of charges against President Duterte. The president's Senate allies came to his defense. The report died at the committee level.

In August 2023, Rappler revisited and published a postscript of the biggest corruption scandal of President Duterte now that the pandemic for which this corruption gestated has dissipated and the lockdowns imposed by the president are now just a not-so-distant memory.

First, President Duterte has remained untouched by this mess, as has his longtime aide and now Sen. Christopher "Bong" Go, who was earlier linked to the Pharmally scandal through the DBM undersecretary, Christopher Lao, allegedly his stooge (Go denied this vehemently). No cases were filed against Secretary Duque, and he quietly returned to the private sector teaching at the family-owned Lyceum-Northwestern University in Dagupan City. Michael Yang, Duterte's erstwhile "economic adviser," is now back in China. The biggest fishes got away! Sen. Raffy Tulfo, in October 2022, named Yang as allegedly being among the smugglers of agriculture products into the country, adding the appellation "kingpin" of vegetable smuggling, with operations all over the Philippines.

Rogues' gallery

The Ombudsman's special panel of investigators had recommended the filing of three counts of graft against Christopher Lao. He resigned from PS-DBM in 2020; he was required to pay a slap-on-the-wrist fine equivalent to a year's salary. His alleged accomplice, Warren Rex Liong, group procurement director of PS-DBM, was ironically awarded an appointment as overall deputy ombudsman, which could open him to charges of a conflict of interest. In March 2023, the Ombudsman ordered Liong's preventive suspension along with Paul Jasper de Guzman, the PS-DBM procurement manager.

Among the Pharmally directors and executives were Huang Tzu Yen, chairman, and Zhang Bingquiang, all wanted in Taiwan for financial crimes. The Pharmally cabal completes the Chinese connection; siblings Twinkle and Mohit Dargani, Pharmally president and corporate secretary/treasurer, respectively, and Linconn Ong spent time in detention either at the Senate or in the Pasay City Jail. They were released when the Senate session was adjourned.

The cases of these perpetrators, the small fishes are languishing in the labyrinth of the Philippine justice system. And the big fishes? Waiting for the time that Blind Lady Justice gets Alzheimer's.