Dengvaxia suit vs Garin stays, court rules

The Sandiganbayan has denied the bid of former health secretary and now Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin to junk the graft and technical malversation case against her over the purchase of P3.55 billion worth of Dengvaxia vaccines in 2015.

In a nine-page resolution dated Jan. 10, the court’s Second Division dismissed Garin’s arguments in her motion to quash that the facts in the charge sheet did not constitute an offense.

She had also argued that her constitutional right to a speedy disposition of cases was “violated because of inordinate delay in the proceedings relative to the investigation and filing of the information in these cases.”

The same arguments were cited by her coaccused in their respective motions to quash.

Garin was indicted for graft in August last year, along with former Department of Health (DOH) officials led by Undersecretaries Gerardo Bayugo and Kenneth Hartigan-Go, director Maria Joyce Ducusin and former Philippine Children’s Medical Center executive director Julius Lecciones. Except for Bayugo, all of them were also charged with the illegal use of public funds or property or technical malversation under Article 220 of the Revised Penal Code.Unlawful procurement

The case was based on the allegedly unlawful procurement of vaccines for the government’s dengue immunization program under then President Benigno Aquino III.In its resolution, the Sandiganbayan ruled that the information filed by the Ombudsman against the accused was sufficient and “necessarily constitute the offense charged.” It also said that the charge sheets from prosecutors all contained the elements of graft and technical malversation.

Only Garin had raised the argument that more than one offense was charged, pointing to a violation of the rule against duplicity of offense. But this was overruled by the court, which said that each information charged only one offense.The court also junked the respondents’ claims of inordinate delay in the prosecution of their cases because prosecutors had to give all the initial 42 respondents opportunities to answer the charges against them.

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“[T]he Court finds that the length of time spent by both the [Department of Justice] and the Office of the Ombudsman before issuing the resolutions that culminated in the filing of the cases in court is reasonable and acceptable,” the court said.

“The Court rules that the investigations were not attended by vexatious, capricious and oppressive delays,” it added. “Rather, the length of time spent in the investigation indicates that a careful examination and review of the evidence and documents were thoroughly undertaken before the cases were filed in court.”

The resolution was penned by Associate Justice Oscar Herrera Jr., the Second Division’s chair, with both Associate Justices Edgardo Caldona and Arthur Malabaguio concurring. INQ