Pharmally execs released from Pasay City Jail

After six months in detention, Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation officials Mohit Dargani and Linconn Ong have been released from the Pasay City Jail Thursday morning.

According to a report of Jhomer Apresto on Super Radyo dzBB, Dargani and Ong came out of prison at 9:15 a.m.

Pharmally officials na sina Linconn Ong at Mohit Gargani, pinalaya na mula sa Pasay City Jail.

Nakulong ang dalawa matapos mabigong ibigay sa Senate Blue Ribbon Committee ang mga pina-subpoena na financial documents ng Pharmally kaugnay ng umano’y overpriced covid-19 supplies. pic.twitter.com/dKO4Gdzzqs

— Jun Veneracion (@jun_veneracion) June 2, 2022

Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) spokesperson Chief Inspector Xavier Solda confirmed to GMA News Online that the Pharmally officials have been released.

According to a report of Jhomer Apresto on Super Radyo dzBB, Dargani and Ong came out of prison at 9:15 a.m.

Solda said they received the release order signed by Senate President Vicente Sotto III around 8 a.m.

Interviewed on CNN Philippines, Atty. Ferdinand Topacio, lawyer of the Pharmally officials, said his clients are eager to home to their families and go on with their lives.

“They have been released. All the paperwork has been done. And we are just waiting for their personal effects to be returned to them and then they will proceed to their destinations,” he said.

Topacio hit Senator Risa Hontiveros after she expressed willingness to file a resolution in the next Congress for another probe involving Pharmally.

“I think Miss Risa Hontiveros is just grandstanding being the lone survivor of the decimation of the opposition. Nagpapabibo lang po yan. Nagpapa-ingay lang po yan si Miss Risa Hontiveros," he said.

(She is just grandstanding. Miss Risa Hontiveros just wants to make a name for herself.)

In November 2021, they were transferred to Pasay City Jail after refusing to disclose the whereabouts of the documents on the company's financial statements that were requested in the blue ribbon probe.

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, Senate blue ribbon panel chairman Richard Gordon led the 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, which only had P625,000 in paid-up capital when it entered into government transactions.

Gordon’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. — RSJ, GMA News