PHARMALLY Pharmaceuticals Corporation director Linconn Ong and treasurer Mojit Dargani were released on Thursday morning, June 2, 2022, from Pasay City Jail after almost six months of detention.On Wednesday evening, June 1, outgoing Senate President Vicente Sotto III signed the release order of Ong and Dargani.Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, the legal counsel of the Pharmally officials, said they were in good spirit and were very much excited to reunite with their families.In September 2021, Ong and Dargani were detained at the Senate premises due to their alleged evasive answers during a hearing in relation to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation on the irregularities in the use of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic funds by the Department of Health (DOH).In November 2021, the committee ordered their transfer to the Pasay City Jail after they failed to produce the “boxes of documents” subpoenaed by the panel, which aims to shed light on the alleged overpriced medical supplies the firm delivered to the government.The panel then was looking particularly for the company’s financial statement for 2020 after a tax expert flagged the P3.4-billion unsupported purchases of the firm that it declared to the Bureau of Internal Revenue.The company, which incorporated in the Philippines in 2019, bagged over P8.6-billion contract from the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget Management for the delivery of medical supplies to the DOH amid the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.Aside from allegedly supplying the government with “overpriced” medical items, the lawmakers also said that the firm was favored by not undergoing the proper procurement process due to the influence of presidential adviser for economic affairs Michael Yang.Committee chairman outgoing Senator Richard Gordon said these activities where several individuals illegally amassed large amounts of money from the government happened while the Filipinos were suffering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.In its draft report released in February, the committee recommended the filing of charges against President Rodrigo Duterte over “pre-meditated plunder” committed by several of his appointees, including Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, former Procurement Service-Department of Budget Management (DBM) officer-in-charge Lloyd Christopher Lao and former procurement director Warren Rex Liong who all took part in the “anomalous transactions.”It also recommended the filing of charges against Yang and Pharmally officials, including Ong, Dargani, owner Huang Tzu Yen, President Twinkle Dargani and administrative assistant Krizle Mago.Among the charges were plunder, estafa, perjury, falsification of public documents and violation to the Bayanihan Law.The report, however, failed to secure the approval of the majority as only nine senator, including Gordon, Leila de Lima, Risa Hontiveros, Panfilo Lacson, Manny Pacquiao, Francis Pangilinan, Aquilino Pimentel III, Franklin Drilon and Ralph Recto, signed.Subsequently, the report went on archive after it was not reported out of the plenary until the 18th Congress adjourned sine die on Wednesday, June 2.This means that the Senate will not make any formal recommendations or position on the controversy even after 18 long-hours of hearing and digging to get to the bottom of it.On May 31, Gordon took a swipe at his fellow lawmakers for refusing to sign the draft committee report.“The Senate’s full disclosure of the Pharmally plunder controversy achieves closure for our people. I am doing this as a chairman in a quandary. I respect my fellow members. I do not try to antagonize them or badmouth them. I respect the Filipino people,” he said during his privilege speech.“The people of this country should not be denied the judgment or at least a debate whether there was malfeasance, misfeasance or nonfeasance…The acts done in Pharmally were done with impunity,” he added. (SunStar Philippines)