A Quezon City Regional Trial Court on Friday ordered the deferment of the arraignment of the owner of WellMed Dialysis Center and two former employees tagged as behind the ghost claims involving Philippine Health Corp.
Branch 219 reset the arraignment of the center’s owner, Bryan Sy, and two former-staff”•Edwin Roberto and Liezel de Leon, who blew the whistle on the ghost claims”•to July 12.
But the court would still have to hear the ex-parte motion to defer filed by Roberto and De Leon in connection with their transfer of detention from the National Bureau of Investigation to an ordinary jail facility on grounds they have already been placed under the Department of Justice’s witness protection program.
The two whistleblowers appealed to the court to dismiss the 17 counts of estafa filed against them.
On the other hand, Sy also filed a motion to quash the criminal suit against him.
The Justice department found probable cause to indict Sy, Roberto and De Leon for estafa for falsifying the documents to collect payments from PhilHealth for the supposed medical services of patients who were dead.
It recommended a P72,000 bail for each count of estafa or a total of P12 million each.
The three accused have been placed in the custody of the NBI since then.