BAÑOC
With P3.5 billion pesos in government funds wasted and with 830,000 children’s lives in danger because of a failed dengue immunization program, it is a great insult to the intelligence of the Filipino people if no one will be penalized for the fiasco.
While I appreciate the appearance of former President Benigno Aquino before the Senate blue ribbon committee that investigates the Dengvaxia controversy, but I also have questions on the substance of his statements and answers to the questions addressed to him. I think every fair Filipino who followed the said investigation can question the sincerity of the former chief executive.
It is a fact that the Aquino administration’s dengue immunization program was a total failure. No less than Sanofi Pasteur, manufacturer of Dengvaxia, revealed that its latest study shows that the vaccine does not prevent dengue and that it even poses more risk to people without prior infection.
Aquino still wanted to impress the Filipino people by saying that he was concerned with their health and that he wanted to save lives, hence he implemented the said program. Granting for the sake of discussion that he was true to his intentions, the obvious set of questions are the following:
Did he not know that Dengvaxia was still under the stage of clinical study? If he knew, then why did he gamble if indeed he is concerned with the health of the Filipino people? Why did he allow the Filipino people to be used as guinea pigs or objects of the experiment?
On the other hand, if he did not know, why did he not ask the officials of Sanofi Pasteur as to the status of their experiment when he met them personally twice? Why did he not ask his trusted alter ego Health Secretary Janette Garin? Why did he not ask any of his staff? Did no one among his staff volunteer to him the information or did the due diligence?
If he really wanted to save lives, why did he not bother to know the reputation of the company, the manufacturer of Dengvaxia? If he is concerned with the health of Filipinos why did he not know the track record of the company that did the study of the vaccine? Again, why did he not order proper due diligence before entering into such a serious transaction?
Note that Aquino categorically answered “no” when asked by Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman, Richard Gordon as to the background of Sanofi Pasteur. He said that he did not know that Sanofi was found guilty of bribery to 500 doctors in China, the very place where his first meeting with its officials was held.
Aquino said that he did not know that Sanofi was ordered to pay $ 52.7 million fines in 2013 by France, the second venue of his meeting with the company officials. It was also ordered in the U.S. to pay a fine of $ 109 million in 2009 for violation of the anti-kickback law. It was also found guilty of bribery in Eastern Africa, Middle East, Germany and Kenya.
If he wanted to save lives, why did he gamble to implement a vaccine that was still under experimentation by a company that he was totally blind of the background of? Did secretary Garin share the same blindness with him? Did Garin, a doctor, not know the implication of a vaccine that was still under clinical study?
When Aquino claimed that he did not receive any objections on the vaccination program, does it mean that the recorded opposition by the experts was stopped if not filtered within the office of Garin? Was Aquino so naïve that he was blinded by his very own people?
The way Aquino defended himself in his failure to save the SAF 44 is almost identical with his style in reasoning out of the Dengvaxia debacle. Even if we set aside the issue on corruption, the way the vaccine was purchased is highly questionable.
So far the reason of the Aquino administration is an insult to the wisdom of the Filipino people.