Senate power to detain Pharmally execs to expire on June 30, not June 3 — Drilon, Gordon

The Senate's power to detain Pharmally executives Mohit Dargani and Linconn Ong will expire on June 30, 2022, or the day the 18th Congress adjourns, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Wednesday.

Drilon's view runs in contrast with Senate President Vicente Sotto III’s earlier remark that the two Pharmally officials will be released on June 3, 2022.

“The power to detain them for contempt expires when 18th Congress adjourns on June 30,2022,” Drilon said in a text message, explaining that June 3 is only the sine die adjournment of the Third Regular Session and not the 18th Congress itself.

“The 3rd Regular Session of the 18th Congress adjourns on June 3. Note that it is the 3rd Regular Session that adjourns on June 3. But the 18th Congress itself adjourns and closes on June 30,” Drilon said.

Through his media officer, Senate blue ribbon committee chairman Richard Gordon said it is not true that the Pharmally officials will be released in early June.

“They will be released at the end of the Congress,” Gordon said, which means they will be allowed to leave the premises of Pasay City Jail “noon of June 30.”

In the case of Balag vs. Senate of the Philippines, the Supreme Court states that: “[T]he legislative inquiry of the Senate also terminates upon the expiration of one (1) Congress. As stated in Neri, all pending matters and proceedings, such as unpassed bills and even legislative investigations, of the Senate are considered terminated upon the expiration of that Congress and it is merely optional on the Senate of the succeeding Congress to take up such unfinished matters, not in the same status, but as if presented for the first time. Again, while the Senate is a continuing institution, its proceedings are terminated upon the expiration of that Congress at the final adjournment of its last session. Hence, as the legislative inquiry ends upon that expiration, the imprisonment of the detained witnesses likewise ends.”

Asked to comment on Drilon’s interpretation, Sotto said he will adhere to the Supreme Court’s interpretation.

“I just voice[d] my interpretation. If others have a different understanding, then I will ask the legal [department] on the SC ruling,” Sotto told GMA News Online in a Viber message.

Sotto then released to the media the opinion of Senate legal counsel, Atty. Ma. Valentina Cruz, who emphasized that the SC had ruled that legislative inquiries of the Senate can be terminated in two instances: first, upon the approval or disapproval of the Committee Report as stated under Sections 22 and 23 of the Senate Rules; and second, upon the expiration of one Congress.

"If the statements in Balag by the Supreme Court are applied despite being obiter dicta, it is our reading that the period of detention should end upon the approval or disapproval of the Committee Report or the expiration of the Congress, whichever comes first, and the expiration of Congress should be reckoned from the final adjournment of its last session," the conclusion of Cruz's legal opinion read.

On Tuesday, the legal counsel of Ong and Dargani insisted that his clients should have been released from Pasay City Jail in February or when the partial report of the Senate blue ribbon committee was released.

Atty. Donn Kapunan claimed that the report was "deliberately and purposely characterized as 'preliminary' in order to circumvent the Balag doctrine that resource persons cited in contempt must be released upon the issuance of a committee report."

"We feel that the committee chairman consciously came up with such [a] scheme to keep my clients in jail for as long as he could," he added.

Dargani and Ong are detained at the Pasay City jail after they were cited in contempt for failing to produce documents related to the company's operations during the Senate blue ribbon committee hearings on the government’s use of its COVID-19 fund.

Ong had been under Senate custody since September 21, 2021, after he was cited in contempt for being "evasive" and "lying under oath."

Dargani, meanwhile, was arrested on November 14, 2021, as he tried to leave the country via a chartered plane at the Davao City International airport.

Last year, Gordon led the Senate blue ribbon committee's inquiry into the transfer of P42 billion COVID-19 funds from the Department of Health to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).

This included PS-DBM’s purchase of P8.6 billion worth of face masks, face shields, and PPEs from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, a firm that only had P625,000 in paid-up capital when it entered into government transactions.

The Senate blue ribbon committee chairman's report previously recommended the filing of criminal charges against Ong, Dargani, and several government officials and individuals in connection with the alleged anomalous purchases of COVID-19 supplies. —KBK/VBL, GMA News