COA officer submits new docs for Pharmally case trial

MANILA, Philippines — A Commission on Audit (COA) officer on Monday submitted a new set of documents to the Sandiganbayan 1st Division in the graft trial related to the Pharmally case.

READ: Finally, a Pharmally trial

COA records officer Eljun Jumamil took the witness stand to submit documents that state prosecutors identified as new evidence against former Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III and ex-Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Undersecretary Christopher Lloyd Lao.

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Duque and Lao face graft charges over alleged anomalies in the transfer of P41.46 billion in COVID-19 funds.

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Of that amount, Ombudsman complainants said P11.5 billion was paid to startup company Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. to supply face masks, face shields, test kits, and other medical items during the pandemic.

The counsel for Duque and Lao objected to the presentation of new evidence whose contents were not immediately clear, since the prosecutors admitted it was not yet available during the pretrial conference.

1st Division chairperson Maria Theresa Mendoza-Arcega said the court noted the continuous objection of the counsels, while accepting the evidence subject to verification later.

Jumamil no longer underwent cross-examinations by the counsels of Duque and Lao after making several stipulations.

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He was made to stipulate that he has no personal knowledge of, and no participation in, the preparation of documents and the investigation by the COA’s fraud audit office.

“My duty is limited to safekeeping,” Jumamil said.

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Mendoza-Arcega then dispensed with Jumamil’s oral testimony.

Next to testify in court will be an investigator from the Office of the Ombudsman on July 6.

The graft trial began after more than a year when the Office of the Ombudsman filed the case against Duque and Lao in the antigraft court in Sept. 2024.

In 2021, the Senate blue ribbon committee started the alleged “suspicious” fund transfer from the DOH to the Procurement Service (PS) of DBM.

State prosecutors said they plan to present around 60 witnesses throughout the trial.

Duque and Lao have not attended the trial. Both of them also posted a P90,000 bail each for graft in 2024.

State prosecutors said that Duque and Lao “acted with evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence” in their capacities as DOH and PS-DBM head due to alleged irregularities in the fund transfer between their agencies from March to December 2020.

The DOH, then led by Duque, should have first determined whether tapping PS-DBM would expedite the procurement of protective personal equipment needed by public health workers at the height of the COVID-19 crisis, the Ombudsman said.

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The anti-graft body further said that the DOH, as a procuring entity, had the authority to directly negotiate or purchase essential COVID-19 goods, making it unnecessary to ask for PS-DBM’s services. /gsg