In a Facebook post dated Sept. 11, Executive Sec. Salvador Medialdea scored senators of the Blue Ribbon Committee who are conducting hearings into the cost of goods purchased by the government at the height of the pandemic last year.
He said the hearings have, to date, “shown nothing to prove their case except to surround it with speculations drawn from bullying of resource persons most of whom have already been criminally condemned without due process.”
Medialdea reminded the senators that the Office of the President, in line with the provisions of the Bayanihan Law that they themselves help craft, had been sending weekly reports to Congress and the Senate on purchases and activities related to the government’s COVID-19 response.
If the senators had only taken time to comment on the reports, Medialdea wrote, there would have been no need for the hearings that have “ripped a lot of time, effort and money for government to the detriment of the more serious problem of addressing the pandemic.”
Here is the full text of his post:
“We have 26,303 [COVID-19] cases today. A surge has been going on for several days now.
“And yet, key officials in charge of protecting our people from this surge are being required to attend hearings for an alleged ‘grand plunder’ which to date has shown nothing to prove their case except to surround it with speculations drawn from bullying of resource persons most of whom have already been criminally condemned without due process.
“As of Friday, September 11, 2021, 5 hearings have been conducted and as I was informed, several resource persons are still to be called for further bullying. A hearing is set again on Monday.
“To our Senators, kindly go over the provisions of the Bayanihan Law which you yourselves proudly crafted to address the pandemic.
“It provides for the Office of the President to render a weekly report to the Senate and the House for all purchases and all other activities related to the pandemic.
“These reports were religiously submitted to you for your comments. Except for a few, none of you bothered to give a comment on those reports. Perhaps, if you had done so, you could have avoided calling for a blue ribbon hearing which has ripped a lot of time, effort and money for government to the detriment of the more serious problem of addressing the pandemic.
“What do we want to achieve here? Break the record of Binay Senate Hearing which totaled 25 days while people are suffering and dying? To prove “grand plunder”? Elements please for lawyers who read this.
“PRRD [President Rodrigo Roa Duterte] stated that we have to bear with this pandemic. It is worldwide and each country has to address their own concerns. I agree.
“In our case however we have a pandemic and at the same time, we have a circus in the very House where people are supposed to care for us.
“I have a suggestion to those conducting the Senate hearings. Just file the necessary cases and leave it to the experts tasked to investigate them while you do your jobs to legislate or conduct investigation properly in aid of legislation. By doing so, you can preserve your energy for the coming elections.
“To those suffering because of the pandemic keep on praying for healing. It is bad for our morale as a nation to be watching a bad circus during a pandemic.
“Let us all do something worthwhile to alleviate the sufferings of our people.
Good day!”
– jlo
