House invites Noy to next Dengvaxia hearing

The House of Representatives’ committee on good government and public accountability yesterday invited former president Benigno Aquino III to its next hearing on the Dengvaxia immunization controversy.

The committee issued the invitation upon the request of Rep. Lito Atienza of party-list group Buhay.

Atienza told the panel that he forgot to include Aquino in his motion during its Dengvaxia hearing on Tuesday for officials of the previous administration to be invited to the inquiry.

He said his motion covered only former budget secretary Florencio Abad. The committee is trying to set its next hearing for next week.

Atienza said he wanted to know the circumstances that prompted the Aquino administration to launch its dengue immunization program using Dengvaxia vaccine from French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur.

He said Aquino and Abad should also explain where the P3.5 billion used to procure the vaccine came from.

“There are many ongoing investigations into the medical aspect of this critical issue. But aside from the medical aspect, we should investigate more deeply into where did the money come from that enabled the Department of Health to embark on such a program,” he said.

“And more importantly who authorized the release of the funds since these were not included in the General Appropriations Act of 2016? Who conceived this program and ultimately approved the release of these funds? We must pinpoint who is accountable for the release of these funds. Who can we point to as the real brains behind this program? Was it the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) or the Office of the President?” he asked.

Atienza served the administration of Aquino’s late mother Corazon as National Housing Authority general manager.

Aquino and Abad had attended a Senate hearing on the Dengvaxia immunization program.

During the Senate hearing last December, Aquino explained before the Blue Ribbon and health committees that it was vital that a budget for Dengvaxia be secured before the end of 2015 because it would be “very, very difficult” to find a source for the budget and get Congress to approve it by the first quarter of 2016 – an election year.

Not getting a budget in 2015 would mean pushing the dengue school-based immunization program to 2017 at the earliest, because the budget would be approved in 2016 for 2017, Aquino said, refuting insinuations that the purchase was rushed because the former president met with Sanofi Pasteur executives just a few weeks before that on Dec. 1, 2015.