Press Release
June 3, 2022

Dispatch from Crame No. 1265:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima on the archiving of the Pharmally Report

6/3/22

I am sorely disappointed at the failure of several of our colleagues in the Blue Ribbon Committee to sign the Committee Report on the Pharmally investigation. Because of the lack of a majority signing the same, the report would now have to be archived, as if no anomaly happened. This will also let all culpable parties get away with the 11 billion peso heist scot free.

To let these people get away with plunder and corruption smacks of gross dereliction of duty on the part of the Senate. That is why the Blue Ribbon Committee led by Sen. Dick Gordon burned the midnight oil for weeks in order for this not to happen, and so that those responsible will be held to account. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the Committee and its Chair, it appears that Duterte still had favors to collect even as his term ends, and so was able to frustrate the release of the Committee Report.

This is a most sordid affair that should not have been the swan song of 18th Congress on the part of the Senate. Instead of exacting accountability, the last act of this Senate under Duterte was to continue turning a blind eye to his administration's impunity.

I do hope that Sen. Risa Hontiveros's plan to revive the Pharmally inquiry in the 19th Congress will bear fruit this time around. It will surely be a test for the incoming administration insofar as its promise to fight corruption and jail corrupt officials is concerned, no matter how high up they are in the totem pole of government.

I also hope that the next Blue Ribbon Chair is as aggressive and relentless as its last Chair has shown, given the sensitive mandate of the Committee to be the vanguard of the Senate against corruption in government. ###

(Access the handwritten version, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_no._1265)

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