MANILA, Philippines 鈥� Siblings Mohit and Twinkle Dargani of the Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. have been cited for contempt by Senator Richard Gordon for not showing up to the Senate blue ribbon committee probe on the alleged overpriced pandemic supplies.
During the hearing on Thursday, Gordon wanted to shift the questions to Mohit Dargani as they continue looking into the transactions entered by the government, particularly the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).
However, both Mohit and Twinkle, who were attending virtually, did not respond to Gordon鈥檚 statements.
鈥淚 would like to ask questions to Mohit with the permission of everybody.聽 Can we switch to Mohit, with your permission, everybody?聽 Mohit Dargani. Can you show yourself in the video?聽 Mohit Dargani?鈥� he asked.
鈥淥kay while we鈥檙e looking for Mohit, sorry Twinkle, I鈥檒l have to ask you the questions, you鈥檙e the president of the company after all.聽 Twinkle Dargani please?鈥� he asked.
Senator Risa Hontiveros informed Gordon that they don鈥檛 see Twinkle online, while Senator Francis Pangilinan noted that Mohit is actually on the list of participants.
Gordon then said he did not want to issue another contempt order immediately, and asked for both Mohit and Twinkle again.聽 However, they still did not get any response.
鈥淭he chair will now entertain a contempt order for not appearing in spite of the fact that they were here, and I don鈥檛 care if you are millionaires, we can put you in contempt,鈥� Gordon said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a motion to put them under contempt for not appearing now, you know there鈥檚 so many questions that can be asked of Mohit and Twinkle,鈥� he added.
Mohit eventually showed up, reasoning out that his signal was bad which prevented him from showing up.聽 Then, Pharmally president聽Huang聽Tzu Yen told Gordon that Twinkle cannot be present because she is attending to their mother whose blood pressure shot up.
鈥淣ow you appear.聽 鈥楶ag tinakot kayo na meron nang warrant of arrest sa inyo, 鈥楬ello Mr. Chairman, I鈥檓 here sir鈥�.聽 No, no, I cannot forgive you, you鈥檙e an Indian, that is where that very famous Bangalore, number one ang India sa computer, and you鈥檙e no exception to that you look like a smart young man,鈥� Gordon said.
鈥淚 think Twinkle is going to the hospital with her mom because her mom had a (high) blood pressure, I think that was communicated by our attorney to the director general,鈥� Huang noted.
Pharmally聽is聽at聽the center of the Senate鈥檚 investigation聽on聽the Commission聽on聽Audit (COA) report that showed deficiencies聽in聽the Department of Health (DOH) COVID-19 funds amounting to P67.32 billion.
Part of that P67.32 billion聽is聽the P42 billion funds transferred by DOH to PS-DBM.聽聽The procuring agency then gave P8.7 billion worth of contracts to聽Pharmally, despite it having a small capital of P625,000.