Duterte: Gordon afraid to have Red Cross funds audited

President Rodrigo Duterte claimed in a taped address aired on Wednesday that Senator Richard Gordon is afraid to subject the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) to the scrutiny of the Commission on Audit (COA) scrutiny. 

The President made the claims amid the ongoing Senate blue ribbon committee probe into the P8-billion worth of pandemic supply purchases from small firm Pharmally corporation owned by a handful of Chinese individuals.

Gordon, who sits as PRC chair, also chairs the Senate blue ribbon panel.

"Takot ka [ma-audit] kasi marami kang atraso over the years (You are afraid to be audited because you know you accumulated skeletons over the years)," Duterte said.

"You won't have the time to cover up everything," he added.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque earlier said government funds paid to PRC for the conduct of RT-PCR COVID-19 test is subject to COA audit.

Duterte echoed Roque during the Talk to the People aired on Wednesday, saying that Gordon will face reckoning. 

"We need to know nasaan na ang pera (where is the money), Senator Gordon. I am demanding an answer, and we will go over it with COA report which is a public document," Duterte said.

"Gordon likes to do investigations, and he has been in Red Cross for the longest time. It dates back to my days as a Boy Scout and he is already in the Red Cross. Now that it is your turn to be audited, you refuse it. Kapag ang pera sa gobyerno (when it comes to government funds), the receiving entity responsible for that money," Duterte added.

GMA News Online contacted Gordon for comment but has yet to receive a reply.

In an earlier statement supporting Gordon, the PRC Board of Governors said that the audit of PRC funds is conducted by a private international accounting firm which is also the auditor of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies which receives a copy of the independent audit report.

Likewise, they cited that these previous audit reports have no findings of any wrongdoing raised against the institution nor its officers involving regular operations and even in their initiatives during major disasters such as Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), Tropical Storm Ondoy, and Tropical Storm Sendong, among others. 

During one of the hearings of the Senate panel investigating Pharmally, Gordon's committee played an RTVM footage showing Chinese businessman Michael Yang and President Duterte having a meeting with Pharmally officials.

Yang was former presidential adviser on economic affairs.

Later, Senator Risa Hontiveros, citing records from Taiwan's Ministry of Justice website, said that Pharmally's chairman Huang Wen Lie, also known as Tony Huang, is wanted for securities fraud, stock manipulation, and embezzlement.

The same website also lists Huang's son, Huang Tzu Yen who sits as incorporator of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. and Pharmally Biological Inc., as also wanted for stock manipulation. —with a report from Hana Bordey/KG/RSJ, GMA News