Lao, Pharmally execs placed on BI lookout list

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued an immigration lookout bulletin order for former Budget Undersecretary Christopher Lloyd Lao and seven other individuals amid the Senate probe into the alleged irregularities in the purchase of pandemic-related supplies.

Aside from Lao, the DOJ also placed Overall Deputy Ombudsman Warren Rex Liong and Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation officials — Twinkle Dargani, Huang Tzu Yen, Krizle Grace Mago, Justine Garado, Linconn Ong, and Mohit Dargani — on the lookout list.

The purpose of the lookout bulletin order is to monitor the itineraries of their travel or whereabouts should they attempt to leave the Philippines.

Huang, chairman and president of Pharmally, is a Singaporean and is currently in his home country.

"The BI (Bureau of Immigration) will make the proper arrangements for monitoring the subject’s travel movements abroad," Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said in a message to reporters.

The Senate investigation is now focused on the Department of Health’s transfer of the P42-billion fund to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) for the purchase of medical supplies at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

The lawmakers gave special attention to the transactions entered into by the PS-DBM with Pharmally, a small firm that only had a paid-up capital of around P625,000 but secured over P8 billion worth of government contracts for the procurement of allegedly overpriced PPEs and other medical supplies.

The DOJ is expected to issue a lookout order for Chinese businessman and former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang, who allegedly lent money to Pharmally that was used to pay for the supplies, within the day.

The Senate has officially requested the BI, through its mother agency, the Department of Justice, to keep an eye on Yang. --KBK, GMA News