The head of the General Retailers and Traders’ Association, Vince Farrugia, said he was unhappy that he had a convicted official representing pharmacy owners on the GRTU council but adds that he has no option but to accept Mario Debono as the members’ elected representative.
“This is not something I am happy with,” a fiery Vince Farrugia said when pressed by MaltaToday about the GRTU statute which states that a person found guilty on “matters of public trust and/or propriety as stipulated in the Criminal Code” shall have his membership revoked. “However if the members of the GRTU Pharmacy Owners want him, then good luck to them.”
Farrugia was contacted in the wake of a MaltaToday Midweek story revealing Debono’s past criminal conviction on a number of hate mails and threatening emails sent to Labour MEP Joseph Muscat.
Debono is also currently under police investigation on suspicion of importing counterfeit medicinals to Malta and GRTU members are pointing their fingers at Farrugia for staunchly defending the convicted official despite statute provisions stipulating suspension in cases of criminal convistions.
Yet last month he signed the Pharmacy Of Your Choice memorandum with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.
“Even saints in heaven make big mistakes,” Farrugia said defensively about his official. “If he had stolen GRTU property or used its letterheads, then that would be a breach of public trust. However this (Debono’s conviction) is not something that affects the integrity of his work within the GRTU.”
He said that year after year, Mario Debono was re-elected to his post as President of the GRTU Pharmacy Owners Section in spite of the intense campaign of e-mails against him “with a greater majority” because of his hard work and dedication.
Speaking about e-mails, Debono’s vitriolic messages sent to MEP Muscat were described by Farrugia himself as “more bile than crime”.
In one of his emails to Muscat, Debono refers to the MEP as “Goebbels”, former foreign minister George Vella as a “birdbrain”, Labour commentator Manwel Cuschieri as “maqjel” (pig sty), and Labour leader Alfred Sant as a “mental masturbator”.
Other emails in the possession of the police, and seen by MaltaToday, are replete with personal, vulgar and sexual invective directed at Muscat, as well as other vitriolic attacks against Labour personalities, including One TV’s head of news, Miriam Dalli. Muscat also told MaltaToday that Debono used to stalk him and his wife.
Yet Farrugia questioned the ethics of MaltaToday and claimed that this newspaper “is being paid” to carry the stories on Mario Debono. “Who on earth is Mario Debono?” he asked.
Earlier this year when confronted with the ongoing investigation about Debono’s importation of alleged counterfeit medicines, Farrugia said the GRTU official was still innocent and there was no court sentence against him, ignoring the Joseph Muscat case altogether.