FORMER Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director Augusto Syjuco Jr. filed on Friday a complaint of mass murder and plunder against former President Benigno Aquino III and former Health secretary Janette Garin before the Office of the Ombudsman for the approval of the P3.5-billion procurement of Dengvaxia vaccines.
He said Aquino and Garin must be held culpable for the mass vaccination of 733,000 school children.
As far as the mass murder complaint is concerned, he said a boy in Bataan died last year who was inoculated with Dengvaxia shots but died.
“There is only one death so far but one death is one death too many,” he added.
“I file this complaint for the crimes of mass murder and other related and resultant crimes through reckless imprudence, and negligence, and plunder, and graft and corruption, for and on behalf of 733,000 school children who were inoculated with the deadly vaccine Dengvaxia through apparent recklessness and negligence, and their apparent anxiety to spend P3.5 billion of public funds,” Syjuco’s complaint read.
In related developments:
• Senator Risa Hontiveros expressed dismay over the manner in which the . Senate investigation into the Dengvaxia fiasco was being handled, saying it should be done in a “more participatory and democratic manner.”
The Senate blue ribbon committee, chaired by Senator Richard Gordon, has been conducting hearings on the anti-dengue vaccine first implemented during the time of Aquino III.
“Personally, I had a hard time asking questions because there was not enough latitude and flexibility. Despite that, I attended all the hearings, tried to be very patient and asserted my right to ask my own questions,” said Hontiveros.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the government might tap the President’s social fund should Filipino children who were given a dose of the dengue vaccine develop severe cases of disease.
According to him, officials defied experts’ advice in pursuing the dengue immunization program.
PhilHealth may cover about P8,000 to P10,000 for mild dengue cases, while a P16,000 coverage may be granted to those who will contract severe dengue, Duque said.
In 2016, the government procured P3.5 billion worth of Dengvaxia vaccines for 1 million Filipino public school students.
Last month, French drug maker Sanofi Pasteur announced that administering the vaccine to those who never had dengue might lead to “more severe cases.”
As of November, Dengvaxia was given to at least 800,000 Filipino children under the government’s expanded vaccination program.
Syjuco said the mass vaccination of Dengvaxia could be compared to the botched police operation of the Special Action Force to go after international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan on Jan. 25, 2015 that led to the death of 44 of its troops.
He likened Aquino to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
“Mr. Aquino is the same ‘sick-o’ who had committed the same murder through reckless imprudence and negligence in the military fiasco that brought about the murder of 44 soldiers in the same kind of wild abandon by an incompetent who placed little or no value in the lives of our people,” the complaint read.
He slammed Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales for her failure to act on the criminal charges filed against Aquino.
The Department of Health stopped its vaccination program after Sanofi Pasteur said its Dengvaxia vaccine might be potentially harmful to people not previously exposed to dengue virus.
Meanwhile, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption Friday called on the government to blacklist Sanofi Pasteur from doing business in the country.
“We respectfully call on this honorable committee to recommend to the Food and Drug Administraion or any proper government agency to cause the blacklisting of Sanofi Pasteur from doing business in the Philippines for its alleged acts of instigating this …” it said.
During the hearing, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon pleaded at least twice to Gordon to allow him and other senators to ask their questions.
Aside from limited time given to committee members to ask questions, Hontiveros noted how the committee had allowed a “non-resource speaker” to participate in the hearing.
“I also thought it was improper to let a non-resource speaker speak before the hearing and let the individual cast aspersions against personalities and then ask the committee to look for evidence to support the unsubstantiated claims,” she said.
Meanwhile, Senator JV Ejercito said he was convinced that Aquino was in good faith when he allowed the implementation of the P3.5-billion anti-dengue immunization program using Dengvaxia.
After hearing Aquino’s testimony, Ejercito said he believed Aquino was in good faith to avert dengue outbreak in the future.
“My personal take is that not all information was disclosed, so that the transaction will push through. Possible that he [Aquino] was misinformed on the whole dengue vaccine issue,” he said.
He stressed that presidents only rely on their secretaries or heads of agencies for information on every important issue.
“A President would presume that the due diligence was done, that clinical tests were likewise completed and strict protocols were followed,” said Ejercito.
What was evident though, he pointed out, was that the whole transaction was done in haste.
Aquino defended his actions related to the government’s anti-dengue vaccination program, including the use of Dengvaxia, when he testified during Thursday’s committee hearing at the Senate.
Thomas Triomphe, Sanofi Pasteur’s head for the Asia-Pacific, assured the public that there was no cause for alarm over the use of Dengvaxia for the Philippines’ dengue immunization program because the vaccine continued to be safe and effective in providing persistent protection against the dengue infection.
He said there was no “worldwide” scare over the Dengvaxia vaccine, which continued to be marketed and used in 10 other countries.
“It is important for the public to understand that the vaccine continues to be good, effective and safe,” Triomphe said at the hearing. “There is no reason for public panic.”
During the Senate hearing, Triomphe also said Sanofi Pasteur was ready to “collaborate and reengage” with the Philippines’ Department of Health in contributing to the investigations to be done by the task forces on the review of the government’s dengue immunization program.
Triomphe said newly discovered information about Dengvaxia, which came to light only after almost two years following the registration of the vaccine in the Philippines, showed that seronegative persons (those who have not been infected with the dengue virus before) had a 0.02 percent increased risk of getting traditional dengue symptoms.
For seropositive persons (those who have been infected with the dengue virus), who constitute 90 percent of the Philippine population above nine years of age, Dengvaxia “has a sustained and longer protective effect,” Triomphe said.
“It is perhaps because of the clear benefit of sustained protection that, even after the latest findings, healthcare practitioners in countries where Dengvaxia is marketed and used continue to send orders for our vaccine to this very day,” Triomphe told the committee hearing jointly presided over by Reps. Johnny Pimentel and Angelina Tan.
“Thus, contrary to some reports, there is no ‘worldwide scare.’ We hope that these facts enlighten your honors and your constituents to the truth – that Dengvaxia is good, safe, and effective and that there is no cause for fear or alarm,” the Sanofi Pasteur official added.
Triomphe said Dengvaxia had clearly been shown to offer “persistent protection” against dengue fever, which was “undeniably beneficial” for a country like the Philippines where 150,000 to 200,000 cases of the disease were being reported every year, one of the highest in the world.
“It is an inescapable truth that, in the Philippines, dengue is not just a risk, it is a reality. It is not isolated; it is endemic. As such, the Philippines stand (sic) to benefit most from Dengvaxia,” he said.
According to Triomphe, Dengvaxia was a result of over 20 years of rigorous research and development, which included clinical trials involving more than 40,000 people in 25 studies across 15 countries.
He stressed that the protocols of these clinical trials satisfied the regulations of the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration and requirements were endorsed by various national agencies and international experts, in full compliance with no less than the guidelines of the World Health Organization.
As of December 2015, Dengvaxia has been registered in the Philippines and since then, in 19 countries in Latin America and Asia and used in 11 nations both in the private and public market.