Thread by @natoreyes

Pandemic Corruption: A Pharmally Primer
1. Pharmally Pharma was incorporated only in 2019 with P625k paid-up capital and 7 employees, no track record in gov’t procurement, but bagged P11.7 billion in contracts from 2020-2021, biggest under Bayanihan 1 & 2.

2. Since it is not a manufacturer, and has little capital, Pharmally acted as a middleman between government and PPE suppliers, including from China. Pharmally would sell items to government with a very high mark-up hence the overpricing allegations. Laway lang ang puhunan.

3. Pharmally the sold government face masks at P27 per unit when the original price for these face masks was at only P18 per unit. Government justifies this as an emergency procurement but disregards the fact that other suppliers were selling at a much lower price than Pharmally.

4. Pharmally sold government test kits that would expire in 6 months when government required these to have at least 2 years shelf-life. DOH allowed the procurement of expiring COVID test kits resulting in wastage and losses of P500M. Sana nag-free mass testing na lang sila.

5. Pharmally sold government testing kits from Singapore at P1.720 per unit. Government would buy the same test kits 2 months later at only P925 per unit. Pharmally’s mark-up as middleman was nearly 100%.

6. A Pharmally official admitted to changing the manufacturing date documentation of face shields to make it appear that they were not yet expiring. Warehouse personnel also testified that some face shields were substandard.

7. A Pharmally official admitted that they delivered face masks to PS-DBM even without a purchase order. This is highly irregular and cannot be justified even under the Bayanihan Act.

8. A Pharmally official admitted they entered into a joint venture with what could be considered a dummy company, in order to get government contracts. Business Beyond Limits was incorporated by the girlfriend of the Pharmally official. A Pharmally employee was also linked to BBL

9. Pharmally officials refuse to disclose how they were able to finance imports given that they had very little paid up capital. Huang Tzu Yen says he used life savings. Linconn Ong says they borrowed from Michael Yang. Yang says friends lent money. These are all vague answers

10. PS-DBM justifies all these irregularities by invoking Bayanihan 1&2 where government can enter into negotiated contracts and skip procurement guidelines that protect the public from corruption. It appears that under Bayanihan, anything goes. No more safeguards vs corruption.

11. It is quite clear that there was misuse of government funds, overpricing and favors extended to an unqualified company. The big question is where did Pharmally’s funds really come from as this gives rise to questions of money laundering.