Lourdes Sereno’s law and Persida Acosta’s science
from a person who heads a body that has affirmed in jurisprudence the adage that ignorance of the law is not an excuse. As for blaming UP, the court would have probably ruled that it is not for UP to clear her of any legal responsibility over an act which she committed against the Filipino people, for it amounted to a crime that is punishable with fines and imprisonment. And non- filing of SALN and tax evasion, when committed by public officials, would both merit perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
Her lawyers argue that her failure to file her SALN and to pay the correct amount of taxes are not impeachable offenses, considering that these happened when she was not yet a member of the judiciary. They make light of the fact that she is technically a lawbreaker. In other countries, this could have easily triggered a resignation. Except for Justice Caguioa who was on leave, all the 13 other justices unanimously decided that she should take an indefinite leave. Sereno vowed that she would not resign, even if it means undermining the very rule of law that her office represents. Her tenacity is simply appalling and shameful, to say the least.
Persida Acosta is as tenacious in her crusade against Dengvaxia. The main difference is that she appears dedicated to her commitment to lawyer for the children who died allegedly from complications after being vaccinated. Acosta has not violated any law. One can even admire her steadfast insistence in representing the rights of her clients, even if it means contravening the principle of cooperation between and among government agencies when she refuses to share her findings and the tissue samples from the exhumed bodies of the victims from the UP- PGH.
Acosta’s war is not against the rule of law, but against science. She has turned her commitment to her clients into a platform for her to become a one- woman fury who now torments not just the health bureaucrats whom she accuses of being responsible for the Dengvaxia debacle. She is waging war on the entire health bureaucracy and the medical sciences which she now accuses as being part of the cover- up. Using alleged conflict of interest as a cover, and armed with dramatic flair, she mouths medical jargon like a natural, demeaning hard- earned expertise, and dismissing opposing scientific claims with her dramatics. She totally abandons the logic and detached objectivity of her profession, and assaults the rationality of science by her performances which can only win her accolades from a public crying for blood, and the trust and loyalty of parents whose children have died and whose only consolation is the possible financial indemnity that PAO has dangled with the civil case that Acosta has filed against Sanofi- Pasteur.
But the law requires that Acosta present incontrovertible proof of causality between Dengvaxia and the deaths for her to win the case. When asked during the House hearing if she is certain, she admitted that she was not. The thing is, to the eyes of an angry public and the dead children’s parents who see her as an avenging angel of justice, it doesn’t matter if she isn’t.
Sereno’s refusal to resign undermines the rule of law. Acosta’s theatrics undermines science. And eventually, both will have serious consequences. to the experts