Former president Benigno Aquino III shows a graph of dengue cases at a news briefing at the Comelec office after filing a counter affidavit on the Dengvaxia complaint filed by VACC.-Inquirer/Grig C. Montegrande
The P3.5 billion used to buy supplies of the Dengvaxia dengue vaccine for a mass immunization program was released ahead of the ban on disbursement of public funds during the campaign period for the 2016 national elections, according to former President Benigno Aquino III and former Health Secretary Janette Garin.
Aquino and Garin spoke to reporters on Thursday after responding to summons from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), where they, former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and several officials of the Department of Health (DOH) are accused of violating the ban by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC).
Exemption from Comelec
The Omnibus Election Code prohibits the release, disbursement or spending of public funds by any public official or employee, including barangay officials and officers of government-owned or controlled corporations and their subsidiaries, 45 days before a regular election or 30 days before a special election.
The Comelec, however, grants exemptions to specific projects during the prohibition if the concerned government agency requests for an exemption.
Aquino and Garin said they did not apply for an exemption because they had been advised that there was no need to do so.
“You will ask for an exemption to take away the gray area. But it is prohibited to disburse from March 25 until May 8. So why ask for an exemption if it is not yet covered?” Aquino said.
Garin said the advice came from the Comelec, but she did not say who from the commission gave the advisory.
“When we inquired, we were told that our health programs [did] not require an exemption [from the ban],” she said.
“A DOH director asked the Comelec which of our public health programs required exemption. We were told that an exemption [was] not needed because it [was] not covered by the election ban,” Garin said.
The VACC charged that Aquino, Garin, Abad and the others violated the ban because the immunization campaign was launched on April 4, 2016, well within the 45-day ban.
Garin, however, said that according to her understanding, “an exemption [was] not necessary since the disbursement of funds did not happen during the election ban period.”
Aquino said the purchase order for the Dengvaxia vaccine was issued on March 9, 2016, or 16 days before the start of the ban on March 25, 2016.
Public service
He stressed that the public should not be deprived of a life-saving vaccine just because elections were days or months away.
“The job of protecting the people’s health cannot be held in abeyance because of the elections… It doesn’t stop because of an election period, or because of an election year,” Aquino said.
The former President slammed the VACC for harassing him, and attempting to gain attention by bringing the complaint.
“Why did they file this complaint? It is clear that the point is harassment. It seems that some are correct in saying that the end goal for this is not justice, but rather get attention in order to be appointed [to] office,” he said.