By CZARINA NICOLE ONG KI
The Sandiganbayan has allowed government prosecutors to present additional evidence in the graft and technical malversation case filed against former health secretary now Iloilo 1st District Rep. Janette Loreto Garin and four others in the purchase of P3.5 billion worth of Dengvaxia vaccines in 2015.
In a resolution issued last July 15, the anti-graft court granted the motion filed by the prosecutors to include pieces of evidence that were not part of the record during the preliminary investigation of the charges.
Charged with violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act aside from Garian were Director Maria Joyce U. Ducusin, Undersecretary Gerardo Bayugo, former undersecretary Kenneth Y. Hartigan-Go, and Philippine Children's Medical Center (PCMC) Executive Director Julius Lecciones.
Garin, Ducusin, Hartigan-Go, and Lecciones were also charged with violation of Article 220 of the Revised Penal Code on technical malversation.
They were accused of conspiring with one another in sourcing P3,556,155,900 from the DOH's Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI). However, the prosecution alleged that the funds were used to purchase Dengvaxia vaccines which were not part of the EPI and not listed in Volume 1 of the Philippine National Drug Formulary.
In its motion, the prosecution asked the Sandiganbayan to include documents which were discovered during the conduct of case conferences but were not part of the record of the preliminary investigation.
These documents included the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Task Force Dengvaxia Report dated March 12, 2018 as well as 201 files from the Department of Health (DOH) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Human Resource Department.
The prosecution told the Sandigabayan that it was only last May 8 that Director Jesusa Joyce N. Cirunay of the Center for Drug Regulation and Research (CDRR) of the FDA informed them of the existence and relevance of the FDA Task Force Dengvaxia Report and other DOH and FDA issuances.
In granting the prosecution's motion, the court said: "The Court may allow a liberal construction of the rule where the interest of substantial justice will be served and a thorough disposition of the case will be achieved."
Also the court said: "The Court may exercise its judicial discretion to decide on how best to dispense with justice depending on the circumstances of the proceedings of the case before it."
The eight-page resolution was written by First Division Chairperson Associate Justice Geraldine Faith A. Econg with the concurrence of Associate Justices Edgardo M. Caldona and Arthur O. Malabaguio.