(PNA photo by Joan Bondoc)
Former Sen. Richard Gordon may take the witness stand in August in the graft trial linked to the Pharmally procurement controversy, government prosecutors said Monday.
Prosecutors told the Sandiganbayan First Division that Gordon could be presented as early as the next hearing scheduled for Aug. 3.
The case involved former Health Secretary Francisco Duque and former Budget Undersecretary Christopher Lao, who were accused of irregularities in the transfer of Php 41.46 billion in Covid-19 response funds.
Gordon previously chaired the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, which investigated the movement of funds from the Department of Health to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management in 2021.
Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. drew scrutiny after receiving multibillion-peso government contracts for masks, face shields, test kits and other medical supplies at the height of the pandemic.
The Office of the Ombudsman said Php 11.5 billion of the transferred funds went to Pharmally and alleged that Duque and Lao acted with bad faith or gross negligence in approving the transactions from March to December 2020.
The trial began in June, more than a year after the Ombudsman filed the case in September 2024. Duque and Lao had not appeared in court since proceedings started, although each posted Php 90,000 bail in 2024.
The Ombudsman maintained that the DOH should have first assessed whether using the PS-DBM would speed up procurement, noting that the health department had the authority to directly negotiate and purchase essential supplies during the public health emergency.