President Rodrigo Roa Duterte warned members of Senate that he may prohibit his cabinet executives from attending Committee hearing, if they continue to disrespect them.

“I will not allow any member of the Cabinet to go to Congress to testify kung ganun ang treatment (if they are treated that way),” Duterte said in his regular Talk to the People program aired Tuesday morning.

Duterte made the pronouncement as he questioned the ongoing Senate probe on the Health Department’s P67-billion deficient spending of COVID-19 response funds, including government purchase of alleged overpriced face mask and face shield.

Duterte said he may issued the same directive to military officials.

“Kung sabihin i-contempt kayo, sige (if you get cited in contempt, fine)…in 24 hours, mag-isip ako paano kita kunin (I will find a way to extract you),” he  added.

He was referring to Congress’ authority to hold witness or resource person in contempt and detain them if they refuse to honestly answer questions from members of Congress.

The same address, Duterte challenged senators to send someone to jail over alleged irregularities in the government’s purchases for its COVID-19 response.

“Yung bidding, yung procurement na sabi ninyo mali todohin ninyo ang imbestigasyon at kung may kulong, ikulong ninyo. Hinahamon ko na kayo. ‘Pag wala kayong makulong dito wala kayo,” Duterte said.

Duterte said the emergency procurement of various medical supplies followed existing laws and guidelines.

“In order to address the lack of supplies, the entire government worked together to find a way to procure all the supplies even when all countries in the world were doing the same. The emergency procurement process needed to be resorted to get what we needed quickly because people were dying,” he said.

“The price of PPE (personal protective equipment) and other supplies are fair and reasonable because they were even cheaper than the old prices.”

He also said the Department of Health had to rely on other government agencies such as the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (DBM-PS) because they lacked the manpower.

“You are not an island by yourself,” the President said.