Duque to Public Attorney’s Office: Unite against common enemy

MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Francisco Duque III yesterday renewed his call for Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) chief Persida Acosta to work with them, saying their common “enemy” is Sanofi Pasteur, the manufacturer of Dengvaxia vaccine.

“I reiterate, we need to be one here because there is one enemy here and that’s Sanofi,” Duque said in a press briefing.  

He also cried foul over the statement of PAO forensic consultant Erwin Erfe that he should resign for not being transparent in the Dengvaxia fiasco, noting that the Department of Health (DOH) has always been open to working with PAO.

Duque claimed it was Acosta who continued to shut them off by denying the DOH’s repeated request for PAO to share the results of autopsies conducted on some children who allegedly died after getting shots of Dengvaxia vaccine. 

“Our doors are always open. In fact, this is the testament, proof of our honest and sincere desire to help PAO: we gave and they even rejected the PGH findings. No matter what we do, they refuse it,” he said.

Although PAO had reasoned that the children’s parents did not want to coordinate with DOH, Duque argued that the attorney’s office could convince the parents if it really wanted to. 

“We have to unite against the common adversary... We have a bigger chance of winning in our case (against Sanofi) if we can work together,” he added.