The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered graft charges to be filed against former Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and Lloyd Christopher Lao in connection with their roles in the 2020 Pharmally scandal.
Lao was the former procurement service (PS) head of Department of Budget and Management (DBM), who signed billions worth of government contracts to buy overpriced medical supplies during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both Duque and Lao are being held accountable for violating Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Law following a complaint filed by then Senator Richard Gordon.
Gordon headed the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, which investigated the transfer of public funds amounting to P11.5-billion by the Department of Health (DOH) to the PS-DBM for the highly controversial pandemic response of the government under then President Rodrigo Duterte.
Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation was awarded a large share of medical supply contracts despite only having P625,000 paid-up capital as a company, according to records from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Based on its investigation, the Ombudsman found reason to believe that Pharmally’s funds came from its irregular transactions with the PS-DBM.
“Its financial statements indicate that prior to the 2020 dealings with the PS-DBM, the company had no business activity from September to December 2019. Pharmally even incurred a net loss of P25,550.00,” according to the Ombudsman.
Duque and Lao have yet to publicly respond to this development.
