Sandigan junks Garin petition

Iloilo Representative Janette Garin has failed to bar government prosecutors from presenting an additional set of evidence against her and her co-accused in the alleged anomalous purchase of Dengvaxia vaccines to the tune of P3.5 billion in 2015.

This comes as the Sandiganbayan Second Division issued a resolution dated 16 July which granted the prosecution’s request to include documents that were discovered during the conduct of conferences but were not part of the record during the preliminary investigation of the charges.

The documents include the letter of Sanofi Pasteur country manager Ching Santos to Garin in October 2015 with the subject of “Proposal for inclusion of the Dengue Vaccine inti the Philippine Formulary,” among others.

Garin, however, petitioned the Sandiganbayan to block the prosecution’s efforts citing the court’s rule providing that no evidence shall be allowed to be presented during the trial other than those marked during the pre-trial.

She also argued that the prosecution failed to explain why such documents are relevant or material to the case.

To recall, Garin was charged with violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019) for the alleged irregularities in the purchase of Dengvaxia vaccines worth P3.57 billion from the pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur when she was Health secretary in 2015.

Also indicted were

ex-Department of Health (DoH) supply chain management director Joyce Ducusin, former Undersecretary Gerardo Bayugo, former Undersecretary Kenneth Hartigan-Go, and Philippine Children’s Medical Center Executive Director Julius Lecciones.

The Ombudsman said the former DoH officials unlawfully caused the release of the subject public funds to increase the budget for the Expanded Program for Immunization, which was used for the purchase of Dengvaxia that was not part of the EPI.

According to the Ombudsman, Dengvaxia was not even listed in Volume 1 of the Philippine National Drug Formulary, in violation of Executive Order No. 49 series of 1993 and related administrative orders and issuances to the damage of public service.

The Sandiganbayan may allow their request to take judicial notice of their existence.

In granting the motion of the prosecution, the Sandiganbayan said the same “may be granted to prevent manifest injustice and for a good cause shown.”

The prosecution explained that it only learned the relevance of the 2018 FDA Task Force Report, one of the late documents being presented, in May of this year upon the information of former FDA Center for Drug Regulation and Research director Jesusa Cirunay.

They also stressed that since the additional pieces of evidence were official issuances from the DoH and FDA, the Sandiganbayan may allow their request to take judicial notice of their existence.

The Sandiganbayan then ruled that it may “allow a liberal construction of the rule when the interest of substantial justice will be served and a thorough disposition of the case will be achieved.”