Former PS-DBM exec in Pharmally mess nabbed

MANILA, Philippines —  Former budget undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao, who is facing graft charges over alleged illegal transfer of public funds involving pharmaceutical company Pharmally during the COVID-19 pandemic, was arrested in Davao City yesterday.

Lao was apprehended by tracker teams of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group at Ecoland at around 11 a.m., CIDG director Maj. Gen. Leo Francisco said in a message on Viber.

Lao, the former executive director of the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (PS-DBM), was apprehended based on a warrant of arrest issued by Sandiganbayan First Division chair Justice Maria Theresa Mendoza-Arcega for violation of Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Lao was brought to the CIDG’s Davao field office for documentation. His bail has been set at P90,000 but it is unclear if he has posted bail as of yesterday afternoon.

Lao has been charged with graft along with former Department of Health secretary Francisco Duque III over the alleged illegal transfer of P41 billion in public funds for the procurement of medical supplies for the DOH during the pandemic.

As PS-DBM executive director, Lao accepted the P41-billion fund transfer, awarded P8.6 billion worth of contracts to Pharmally and subjected the DOH procurement to a four percent service fee amounting to at least P1.65 billion.

With his arrest, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said Lao now has to “face the music” and answer the charges against him.

“Now that he is in the hands of the law, he should have admitted who the ‘big boss’ is who has a plan and benefited from the corruption of billions of COVID-19 funds,” she said.

“Atty. Lao and his accomplices must be held accountable for abusing and looting the public treasury, while many Filipinos were sick, hungry and jobless during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Hontiveros added.

“Finally, Atty. Lao’s arrest should serve as a lesson to all who misuse and abuse their public positions to serve evil ends. No matter how much you hide and do magic, you cannot avoid your responsibility to the law and the people,” she said.

Plunder raps urged

Former senator Richard Gordon maintained that plunder, not just anti-graft, charges be filed against individuals involved in the Pharmally scandal.

“The Filipino people deserve no less than the incarceration in prison of former president Rodrigo Duterte, Lloyd Christopher Lao, Michael Yang and the rest of their ilk, they have blood on their hands,” he said.

Gordon was the chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee that investigated the Pharmally irregularities.

“l am glad that Mr. Lao, one of the architects of the plunder-plagued Pharmally scandal, has finally been arrested and will face justice soon before the Sandiganbayan. I suppose other perpetrators will soon be arrested as well,” Gordon said.

Gordon, however, lamented the bail set at P90,000 appears to be very small compared to the billions of pesos stolen from the Filipino people, when Lao and his cohorts Michael Yang, Mohit and Twinkle Dargani, Lin Weix- iong and Linconn Ong, among others, allegedly conspired to plunder more than P11 billion. –  Cecille Suerte Felipe, Edith Regalado