Former Senator Richard Gordon expressed hope that the Office of the Ombudsman would "cast a wider net," in its ongoing probe of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation and its alleged involvement in the irregular procurement of COVID-19 test kits in 2020. Pharmally has been accused of cornering billions of pesos in supply deals with the help of former and incumbent government officials.

The former senator was Chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee when the investigations into Pharmally began in September of 2021.

The Office of the Ombudsman in an August 14, 2023 decision, found probable cause to file graft charges against former Procurement Service Department-Department of Budget Management (PS-DBM) Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lau and procurement management officer Paul Jasper de Guzman, and Pharmally executives Mohit Dargani, Twinkle Dargani, Linconn Ong, Huang Tzu Yen and Justine Gallardo.  It recommended one graft charge against ex-PS-DBM executives Christine Marie Suntay, Webster Laureñana, August Ylagan and Jasonmer Uayan and Pharmally employee Krizle Mago.

The Ombudsman said that the award of the procurement contract to Pharmally despite the firm’s financial and technical incapabilities as well as lack of business experience, “amounts to respondents’ willful intent” to violate the Government Procurement Reform Act and the rules of the Government Procurement Policy Board.

“Let the wheels of justice, often characterized, by a blindfolded lady a carrying scale and a sword, proceed without regard to rank, office, or access, to the highest corridors of political power,” Gordon said.

“The heinousness of the crime committed was aggravated by the fact that at a time when our health-care workers and hundreds of thousands of our people were most vulnerable to Covid-19—many sick, and thousands were dying—these public officials and cohorts were like vultures feasting and greedily exploiting the calamity,” added Gordon.

Sources: CNN Philippines, Business Mirror