A former consultant of the Department of Health (DOH) exposed yesterday the operations of an alleged “mafia” inside the Health department composed of several former and current officials who profited from the controversial procurement of the Dengvaxia vaccine.
Dr. Francis Cruz, who was the consultant of former Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial, bared the names of the DOH officials in a news conference, including former Secretary Janette Garin, who, he said, intentionally pushed for the anti-dengue vaccine to gain profit.
In a news conference, Cruz identified at least 18 incumbent and former DOH officials who benefited from the P3.5-billion Dengvaxia vaccine, which was reported to lead more serious symptoms for people who had not previously been infected with the dengue virus.
Cruz tagged the following incumbent officials as Dr. Mario Villaverde, Dr. Gerardo Bayugo, Lilibeth David, Carol Taño, assistant secretaries Lyndon Lee-Suy, Nestor Santiago, officer-in-charge (OIC) directors Joyce Ducusin, Marvin Bello, Financial Mangement Service director Larry Cruz, regional directors Leonila Gorgolon, Ariel Valencia, Rio Magpantay, and Philippine Children’s Medical Center chief Julius Lecciones.
Aside from Garin, Cruz identified the following former officials as DOH Undersecretaries Nemesio Gako, Kenneth Hartigan-Go, and director Yolanda Oliveros.
“These are not hardened criminals na they intended to be a mafia. They evolved to be a mafia. They are bureaucrats who got tempted once, got tempted twice, then they formed a collusion hangga’t namihasa na (until they got used to it),” he said.
Cruz alleged that the officials are involved in the conversion scheme, in which 90 percent of the project’s budget goes back to the agency and 10 percent goes back to the financier or suppliers.
“It’s not kickback, [conversion] is worse — it’s worse than [Janet Lim] Napoles because Napoles is an outsider. This one [involves] insiders with accredited suppliers who could be a financier,” Cruz said. /INQUIRER.NET