The chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability on Tuesday asked Senator Richard Gordon to allow Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. director Linconn Ong to participate in the panel’s next hearing on the government’s procurement of Covid-19 supplies.

In a letter addressed to Gordon, panel chair Michael Aglipay said Ong, who has been taken into custody by the upper chamber for his evasive answers during the hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, would help shed light on the alleged overpricing of medical supplies.

Aglipay said Ong would also explain the incapacity of the supplier that was awarded billions of pesos worth of contracts.

“In this regard, may we respectfully request your Honor’s and that of your committee the permission to allow Mr. Ong to participate via Zoom Video Conferencing to the hearing of the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability on October 4, 2021 at 11 a.m.,” Aglipay said.

Aglipay requested Gordon’s office to provide Ong the facility and equipment to join and participate in the House committee hearing.

The House committee also issued a subpoena to compel Pharmally official Krizle Mago to testify before the House panel on October 4 after she failed to appear in Monday’s hearing.

Mago, in a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing Friday, revealed that the medical supplier changed the expiration dates of face shields procured for health workers from 2020 to 2021.

At the House hearing, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the established shelf life of a face shield is three years.

Duque also said around 2 million face shields purchased from Pharmally have all been distributed and utilized by medical front-liners during the onset of the pandemic.

He said none of the health workers complained about the face shields delivered to them. (PNA)