PHARMALLY Pharmaceutical Corporation executive Krizle Grace Mago said she is ready to face perjury cases for changing her testimonies on alleged tampering with medical supplies and equipment for the Covid-19 response.
During a hearing on Monday, House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability Chairman Michael Aglipay noted the changes between Mago’s September 24 testimony at the Senate and her responses before the House.
“Ms. Mago, I’ve listened to your opening statement it’s different from some of the statement you made last September 24, are you ready to be charged with perjury? Are you ready to defend yourself? Just in case somebody charges you with perjury?” said Aglipay. Mago replied, “yes, Mr. chair.”
“Magiging comfortable lang ako magsabi ng totoo [I will only be comfortable in telling the truth] in an environment without pressure,” said Mago.
In her opening statement, Mago withdrew her statement at the Senate hearing, saying “it was a pressured response.”
“Regarding my previous statement that I believed we swindled the government, it was a pressured response. Given the level of pressure I was under and the rush of emotions associated with the allegations and my subsequent admission, I was not in the best frame of mind to think clearly,” she said.
“At the time, I considered the fact that we had already delivered a portion [28 percent to be precise]of the face shields to DOH [Department of Health], which prompted my response, “I believe that is the case,” she added.
However, after the Senate hearing, Mago said she realized that the delivered items had not been inspected yet and, as a result, had not been allocated and distributed to the end-users.
After being incommunicado for several days since the September 24 Senate hearing—prompting Blue Ribbon Chairman Richard Gordon to worry about her safety —Mago arrived at the premises of the House of Representatives last October 1 after seeking protective custody from the lower chamber.
“I apologize for going off the radar for a few days. I simply needed time to breathe and to process everything that had just transpired. I extend my gratitude to those who expressed concern for my safety and well-being,” she said.
“The past two months have been particularly difficult for me, which has been exacerbated by my involvement in the ongoing investigations,” she added.
Mago denied allegations made by the unidentified person who appeared in a video presented by Sen.Risa Hontiveros at the September 24 Senate hearing.
“Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, or PPC, has never delivered damaged items to the government, nor does it intend to. PPC conducts routine quality inspection of its inventory prior to making deliveries. It is in the conduct of this quality control that PPC was able to identify damaged items such as, but not limited to, dented, folded, torn or broken, and discolored face shields,” she said.
“Contrary to the allegations made, these damaged items are immediately segregated subject to proper disposal, and therefore excluded from delivery. Moreover, when we received the inventory, the face shields were already inconsistently packed to begin with, meaning that there were face shields packed individually and face shields packed in groups. And these face shields packed in groups had only one product certificate included inside the packaging,” Mago added.
Mago denied allegations that Pharmally delivered expired, substandard and tampered Covid-19 supplies to the government.
Mago said she only instructed her staff to repack the stocks uniformly in groups of 10 face shields per pack for an easier and more efficient inventory management and accounting.
“In the conduct of the repacking, different packs with broken quantities were merged to produce uniform packs of 10 face shields. And as a result of the merging, some certificates got mixed up while others were subsequently discarded as the staff only needed to choose one product certificate to include in the pack,” she added.
Mago earlier admitted before the Senate that the company had tampered with face shields supplied to the government by changing the expiry date from 2020 to 2021.