The Supreme Court voiding the arrest and contempt orders issued by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee against Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. executives is not an indication that the demand for accountability over the misused government funds during the pandemic is now over, Senator Risa Hontiveros said Monday.

Hontiveros said Pharmally executive director Linconn Ong and former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang are "not yet off the hook" amid the SC's decision that partially granted their filed petition, assailing the Senate order and seeking its nullification.

In its decision, the SC explained: "As succinctly pointed out by Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo, witnesses who are charged by Congress with 'giving false or evasive testimony' must be accorded stricter due process requirements, such as the opportunity to explain one's side before being penalized, consistent with the due process safeguards used in criminal proceedings. Considering the broad definition of 'giving false or evasive testimony,' the witness must, at the very least, be given a chance to explain why his or her testimony is not false or evasive."

It then ruled that "In the case, the Committee's grave abuse of discretion lay in its precipitate act of citing petitioners Ong and Yang in contempt and ordering their arrests without giving them the opportunity to be heard."

To recall, the Senate Blue Ribbon panel, which was then chaired by former Senator Richard Gordon, cited Ong and Yang in contempt over "testifying falsely or evasively" during the chamber's probe into alleged anomalies in the procurement of COVID-19 medical supplies on 10 September 2021.

Amid the SC's ruling, Hontiveros said, "Michael Yang, Linconn Ong, and the other masterminds of the Pharmally scandal are not off the hook just yet."

"As one of the senators who took part in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's pursuit of accountability in the Pharmally scandal, I am glad that the Supreme Court upheld the Senate's power to hold persons in contempt and compel the cooperation of witnesses, in relation to its power to hold hearings in aid of legislation," she added.

Hontiveros lamented that the Supreme Court ruling "did not absolve" Michael Yang and Linconn Ong of the "serious accusations against them that were extensively discussed" in the previous Senate Blue Ribbon hearings.

According to Hontiveros, the Office of the Ombudsman has already recommended the filing of criminal complaints against Ong, former PS-DBM head Lloyd Christopher Lao, and other public officers and private individuals tagged in the multi-billion Pharmally scandal.

"The Ombudsman's move was a validation of the findings and recommendations in the draft committee report of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee – something that I am proud of," she said.

"Hindi pa tapos ang paniningil natin ng hustisya at pananagutan sa mga taong nagpayaman gamit ang pondo na para sana sa mga kababayan nating pinadapa ng pandemya," she added.

Meanwhile, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said the recent SC decision of the Pharmally executives' petition shall serve as a reminder to senators who are handling committee chairmanships not to easily "pull the trigger" when citing resource persons in contempt.

"I'm only citing this for the benefit of my chairpersons because it's in our rules that each committee has the power to cite in contempt their resource persons. Of course, sometimes, we're quick to pull the trigger in this particular case. So we'd like to be guided accordingly," Zubiri made his remarks during the Senate plenary debates for the 2024 proposed budget of the Judiciary Branch on Monday.

"But in all honesty, when we have public hearings, particularly on Public Order and Security, Blue Ribbon, none of them will give self-discriminating answers. They will say no, we did not do that even if there were five other witnesses pointing to them that they did it," he added.

For Senator Sonny Angara, the SC was not questioning the Senate's power to contempt "because it is stated in the Constitution."

But, he noted the SC was only pointing out the way of declaring a resource person was put in contempt, "it needs to have due process."

"Siguro balikan na lang yung circumstances of the case and pag-aralan (Maybe we could just review the circumstances of the case and study it) so we can be guided accordingly for the future, you honor," Angara said.

Moreover, Zubiri has requested the Senate Legal Division to come up with a memorandum explaining the decision and its clarification in layman's terms.