MANILA – A legal officer from the Quezon City government told the Sandiganbayan that a P16-million hospital information system (HIS) procured during the term of former Quezon City mayor Herbert Bautista was paid in full even though its software had not been inspected.

In a report, it said that during Bautista’s graft trial before the Sandiganbayan First Division, Quezon City legal officer Atty. Carlo Austria presented a 2019 memorandum from the city’s General Services Department stating that only the system’s hardware had undergone inspection, while the software had not.

Austria also submitted a separate 2019 memorandum from the Information Technology Development Department stating that the software was not inspected because it was unavailable at the time.

Based on the records, Austria said there was no basis for the release of full payment for the hospital information system.

Earlier in the trial, Rosario Maclang Bautista General Hospital Health Education Promotion Officer Luisito Salvador testified that the system was not fully operational and lacked interoperability when it was implemented.

Salvador also told the court that the hospital information system supplied by Geodata Solutions Inc. had incomplete modules and failed to integrate hospital functions upon its rollout.

The complaint, filed by former Quezon City attorney Orlando Paolo Casimiro, alleged that Bautista entered into a supply and delivery agreement with Geodata Solutions Inc. without authorization from the city council and in the absence of an appropriation ordinance.

Bautista was convicted of graft by the Sandiganbayan Special Seventh Division in January 2025 over the release of more than P32 million to an information technology firm for an online occupational permitting and tracking system despite the lack of a city council appropriation ordinance.

In a separate case, however, the Sandiganbayan Third Division acquitted Bautista over the P25-million payment for the installation of a solar power system and waterproofing works at a city-owned building.