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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider 3 ex-DBM officials plead 'not guilty' in P4.1-B Pharmally case

3 ex-DBM officials plead 'not guilty' in P4.1-B Pharmally case

Published Oct 2, 2025 03:24 pm
Three former officials of the Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) pleaded “not guilty” when arraigned by the Sandiganbayan on their graft charges involving the alleged anomalous purchases of P4.165 billion RT-PCR kits for the Department of Health (DOH) during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Those who pleaded “not guilty” during the arraignment on Thursday, Oct. 2, were former PS-DBM officials Allan Raul M. Catalan, Dickson T. Panti, and Gerelyn Francisco Vergara.
Their co-accused -- PS-DBM overall deputy Ombudsman Warren Rex H. Liong, Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation's Director Linconn U. Ong as well as Treasurer and Secretary Mohit C. Dargani did not enter any plea.
They told the anti-graft court they will wait for the resolution of their motion for reconsideration (MR) on the Sept. 8, 2025 order that denied the dismissal of the charges against them.
Earlier, former PS-DBM undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao and officer-in-charge of the Administrative Finance Group Arnold Dupla had pleaded “not guilty” on the graft charges.
There are three graft charges involving three transactions in the Pharmally case.
The first was for the purchase of 41,400 units of BGI Real Time Fluorescent RT-PCR Kits worth P2,877,300,000 on June 8, 2020. The second was for 8,000 units of PCR Kit, BGI Real Time Fluorescent RT-PCR Kit worth P600,000,000 on April 22, 2020, and finally for 2,000 units of A*Star Foundation Kit 2.0 worth P688,000,000 on April 22, 2020.
In filing the charges, the Office of the Ombudsman questioned the financial capability of Pharmally to acquire test kits from foreign manufacturers or suppliers when it was awarded the P4.165 billion contract, especially since its paid-up capital was only P625,000.
The Ombudsman also found it "highly questionable" that Pharmally proposed prices for the 8,000 BGI Real Time Fluorescent RT-PCR Kits and the 2,000 units of A*Star Fortitude RT-PCR Test Kits on April 21, 2020 when the DOH requested for 7,000 BGI test kits and 1,900 A*Star test kits on April 22, 2020.
Also, the Ombudsman said the the delivery of the 2,000 A*Star test kits should have started on May 1, 2020, but was rescheduled and further delayed by Pharmally to June 8, 2020 due to an incoming typhoon. Despite these delays, PS-DBM still awarded the company for the purchase and delivery of 41,400 BGI test kits on June 8, 2020.
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