Bullying the chief public attorney
FILIPINO politicians are notorious for riding on nearly every issue to gain media mileage. Sen. Risa Hontiveros has shown no compunction doing just that in calling for the resignation of Persida Rueda Acosta, the chief public attorney, amid the current measles outbreak in the country.
The reader might not be able to follow the logic behind the self-proclaimed “progressive” senator’s resignation call. Hontiveros’ argument runs like this: Acosta’s well-publicized - nization program has “eroded” public trust in vaccinations.
This, the senator claimed, was the reason parents had stopped getting measles shots for their children. Thus, Acosta should be blamed for the measles epidemic feared to be spreading across the regions. Acosta should, therefore, quit, the argument goes.
(PAO), writes a daily legal advice column for The Manila
Times. She holds no sway, however, on this paper’s editorial policy, much less in the writing of this editorial.
Hontiveros should be called out for her shameless politicking, and even bullying, of a fellow female public servant simply for taking the cudgels for poor litigants.
The senator accuses Acosta of “lies, negligence and hyperpartisanship,” strong words that could very well apply to the senator herself when she incorrectly chose to assign blame for the measles outbreak on the PAO chief.
- rus deaths to the Dengvaxia vaccine, but she is not, by any stretch of imagination, responsible for sparking a spike in measles cases.
Hontiveros has no proof that Acosta’s actions took away public confidence in the efficacy of vaccines. Acosta is no anti- vaxxer like Jenny McCarthy in the United States, who actively campaigns against vaccines; there is no record anywhere of Acosta telling parents to stop immunization for their children.
smallpox? Have immunizations gone down as well because of Acosta’s antics? Hontiveros didn’t say.
This could only be because it is Hontiveros, who is being hyper-partisan by engaging in propaganda to shift attention away from the liability of the administration of former president Benigno Aquino 3rd, her political patron, who authorized the Dengvaxia mass immunization program despite the fact that clinical trials had yet to be concluded.
The public should not forget the original and bigger sin — the previous administration’s negligence and incompetence that raised the risk on the health of thousands of Dengvaxia recipi As the public now knows, Dengvaxia has been found to be effective only on those with prior history of dengue infection, but could pose some risks if administered on those who had yet to be infected. There is, in fact, a strong case to be made here that the Dengvaxia mess that happened under Janet Garin as health secretary precisely undermined public Hontiveros insults the people’s intelligence by implying that they could not distinguish between the Dengvaxia and measles vaccines. She further insults the public by not assigning blame on the Department of Health for the measles outbreak. It’s puzzling why the senator did not engage in that other thing Filipino politicians are notorious for: calling for “investigations or probes in aid of legislation.”
Rather than bully Acosta, Hontiveros should be investigat - cination program and failure to stem the measles outbreak.
While she’s at it, she should run after her political allies who bungled the Dengvaxia program, namely Aquino and Garin, with the same zeal and energy that she’s expending on Acosta.