Du30’s mounting woes

By Artchil B. Fernandez

There is no peaceful retirement for Du30. He has less than a year in office and instead of looking forward to a blissful life after the presidency; Du30 is facing a life likely behind bars not only for the epic failure of his pet programs – war against illegal drugs and corruption, but due to their fakeness.

Du30’s insomnia worsens as the much-awaited decision of the pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the request for judicial authorization to proceed with an investigation by then out-going prosecutor Fatou Bensouda came out this week. The pre-trial chamber authorizes the opening of an investigation into the Philippine situation granting Bensouda’s request.

“In accordance with Article 15(4) of the Statute, the Chamber found that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, noting that specific legal element of the crime against humanity of murder under Article 7(1)(a) of the Statute has been met with respect to the killings committed throughout the Philippines between 1 July 2016 and 16 March 2019 in the context of the so-called ‘war on drugs’ campaign, as well as with respect to the killings in the Davao area between 1 November 2011 and 30 June 2016. The Chamber emphasized that, based on the facts as they emerge at the present stage and subject to proper investigation and further analysis, the so-called ‘war on drugs’ campaign cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation, and the killings neither as legitimate nor as mere excesses in an otherwise legitimate operation. Rather, the available material indicates, to the required standard, that a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a State policy, within the meaning of Article 7(1) and (2)(a) of the Statute.” Thus says ICC’s statement posted on its website.

In its authorization, the pre-trial chamber expanded the scope of the investigation which now includes the Davao Death Squad (DDS) killings when Du30 was Davao City mayor and vice mayor from 2011 to 2016. The original complaint to the ICC only covers Du30’s war on drugs when he assumed the presidency.

The decision was issued by Judge Péter Kovács, Presiding Judge, Judge Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and Judge María del Socorro Flores Liera of Pre-Trial Chamber I. They also took cognizant of the representations of 204 victims.

With the authorization, the new ICC prosecutor Karim Khan can now initiate an investigation on Du30’s war on drugs. During the investigation, evidences are gathered and suspects are identified. Summonses are issued to people to appear before ICC judges and if they refuse arrest warrants are served. The ICC relies on member-states to make the arrests and hand over the suspects to the international tribunal.

The possibility that arrest warrants will be issued to Du30 and his co-accused (former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, then PNP chief and now senator Bato de la Rosa, Supt. Edilberto Leonardo, Supt. Royina Garma, former Interior and Local Government Sec. Ismael Sueno, SPO4 Sanson “Sonny” Buenaventura, former National Bureau of Investigation Director Dante Gierran, Solicitor General Jose Calida, Senator Richard Gordon and then Senator Alan Peter Cayetano) is now a likely possibility. This is what scares Du30 the most – being dragged into The Hague before the ICC to face investigation and prosecution.

Aside from ICC investigation, the other woe facing Du30 is the on-going investigation of the Senate on the anomalous transactions on the purchase of “overpriced” face masks, personal protective equipment (PPE) sets and COVID-19 test kits. At the center of the controversy is Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation.

Pharmally was not even a year old (organized only in September 2019 with capitalization of 625,000 pesos) when it bagged an P8.6 billion contract from DOH from April to June 2020 alone. It received its license as an importer-wholesaler of medical devices only in January 2021 from the Food and Drug Administration.

Senate found that the medical equipment supplied by Pharmally was overpriced. Its face masks were priced at P27.72 when other suppliers sold the same goods at P13.5, P16, and P17.50 for the same period. The company test kit was P1,720 each, nearly double the P925 sold by other companies. Its PPEs were P1,910 apiece, more than double the market price of P945 at the time the Senate discovered.

“It seems to have been planned. If there is premeditated murder, here, we have premeditated plunder,” Sen. Franklin Drilon described the Pharmally modus. “For me, in times of the pandemic, this is treachery,” he added.

Pharmally’s transactions were approved by former PS-DBM chief Lloyd Christopher Lao who used to work under Sen. Bong Go, Du30’s personal assistant. Officials of Pharmally who are wanted in Taiwan for financial fraud were introduced to Du30 in March 2017 by his former adviser on economic affairs Michael Yang, a Chinese national. This is the matrix of Pharmally universe.

It appears from the Senate investigation that Pharmally was created as a vehicle to corner government contracts. The modus is like the Napoles racket where bogus NGOs were set-up to siphon public funds. Like the fake NGOs of Napoles, companies like Pharmally are conduits of corruption. It is possible similar networks of corruption were established in government agencies to plunder the national coffer. The Pharmally scandal reveals corruption in the government is planned, systematic and organized.

The incoming ICC investigation on the war on drugs and the on-going Senate investigation on widespread corruption in the administration are twin woes facing Du30. They also expose the phoniness and hypocrisy of his flagship projects.  The outcomes of these investigations will shape his future. They all lead to one destination for Du30 – jail.