2nd plunder case filed against PNoy, Garin over vaccine mess
Another plunder complaint was filed yesterday against former President, Benigno S. Aquino III, his former Secretary of Health, Janet Garin, and seven others before the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) over the 13.5-billion
anti-dengue vaccination mess.
The second complaint was filed by members of Gabriela and parents of children who were administered with Dengvaxia vaccine, developed and sold to the Philippine government by French firm Sanofi Pasteur.
The first plunder complaint was filed by Former Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco Jr. “for and on behalf of 733,000 school children who were inoculated with the deadly vaccine Dengvaxia.”
Also named respondents in the second plunder case were former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad,former Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa and Sanofi Pasteur officials, namely: Vice-President Guillaume Leroy, CEO Olivier Brandicourt, Medical Director Dr. Ruby Dizon, Asia Pacific Head Thomas Triomphe, and Country Chair for Sanofi-Aventis Carlito Realuyo.
“Respondents acted with evident bad faith as their actions did not only connote bad judgment, but also showed a palpably fraudulent and dishonest purpose to do a conscious wrongdoing for their own personal gain or out of ill motive,” the complaint read.
At the very least, the complainants said the respondents are guilty of gross inexcusable negligence since they failed to exhaustively review the negative effects of Dengvaxia before letting Filipino children get vaccinated.
Undue haste Reports show that Aquino and Garin met with Sanofi Pasteur officials on Dec. 1, 2016 as a follow-up meeting to the one previously held in China to discuss Sanofi’s dengue vaccine.
On December 10, Garin reportedly submitted a proposal to DBM for the procurement of three million doses of Dengvaxia. However, the complainants stated that Garin met with Sanofi officials months prior to December.
At the same time, the DOH-Family Health Office submitted a request to Garin on December 28 to exempt Dengvaxia from being included in the Philippine National Formulatory.
“Under the law, the Philippine National Formulatory under the Formulatory Executive Committee (FEC) determines and assesses the medicines to be bought by the Philippine government,” the complaint read. “The government is required to avail of a certificate of exemption from the FEC before it could be procured by the government.”
Even though the FEC was “very much against the use of Dengvaxia,” Garin, with the support of the other respondents still implemented the Dengvaxia vaccination on a nationwide scale, the complaint said.
That decision reportedly put children aged nine and above at risk, since the World Health Organization (WHO) already released a position paper on the dengue vaccine revealing the risk of hospitalized and that severe dengue is significantly increased among vaccinated individuals.
The research conducted by scientists of the Imperial College London, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Florida even cited that people who have been vaccinated but never exposed to dengue could face a more severe case of dengue once infected.
“Respondents’ acts are both cruel and appalling, as it affects us and the more than 800,000 other children who were inoculated with the controversial vaccine,” the affidavit read.
The complainants want Aquino, Garin and the other officials involved to be held liable under the anti-graft law for causing undue injury to children and the government.
In addition to this, the complainants also want the respondents to be held liable under the Government Procurement Reform Act.
Aquino’s spokesperson Abigail Valte said the former President will not squirm away from the complaints filed against him. “The former president’s attendance at the senate committee hearing has proven one thing: he takes accountability seriously and will continue to answer any and all allegations thrown at him,” she said in a statement.
Free medical treatment
As this developed, Gabriela PartyList led by Rep. Emmi de Jesus and the Association for the Rights of Children in Southeast Asia (ARCSEA) has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to compel the health and education departments and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to monitor strictly 800,000 children who were given Dengvaxia vaccines and provide free medical services and treatment - checkups, consultations, medical treatment and blood tests – if needed.
The petitioners want the SC to compel the setting up of a registry of children who were injected with the vaccine to facilitate the delivery of the medical services needed.
In their petition, the SC was asked to require the three departments to give the free medical services until final determination by competent scientific experts that the threats posed by the Dengvaxia vaccine have been minimized or eliminated.
“These free medical services shall continue until it would have been determined and declared by competent medical and/or scientific experts that the threat/s brought about by the Dengvaxia vaccine have been minimized or eliminated,” the petitioners said.
At the same time, the petitioners asked the SC to compel the government through the DOH’s designated task force to monitor and review the school-based immunization program involving the Dengvaxia vaccine and submit them to the Senate and House of Representatives committees on health which conducting an inquiry.
They also wanted the DOH to study and review further the safety and efficacy of Dengvaxia and to make public the results.
“There are reports that the DOH will provide monetary compensation to those who were inoculated with Dengvaxia. However, petitioners maintain their position that monetary rewards are not enough to compensate for the injury brought to them by this medical scandal,” they added.