Palace to give weight to Senate report on Dengvaxia

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang will seriously consider the recommendation of the Senate Blue Ribbon panel that conducted the Dengvaxia inquiry, presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said yesterday.

Roque said the Office of the President would look into the findings of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee once the Palace decides on its next action on the matter.

“That’s a report created by a powerful committee of a co-equal branch of government that will be given much weight by the Executive when it decides its next course of action on the issue,” Roque said.

He said the President is still awaiting the report of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on the matter.

Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Blue Ribbon committee, said former president Benigno Aquino III and his Cabinet secretaries should be indicted over the P3.5-billion dengue vaccination program.

The recommendation was contained in a Senate panel report issued by Gordon on Wednesday.

Some 830,000 schoolchildren were vaccinated under the program before drug maker Sanofi Pasteur admitted late last year that Dengvaxia could cause severe dengue when administered to patients who have not yet contracted the mosquito-borne disease. 

The Senate panel found the Dengvaxia program was implemented with “undue haste” by Aquino, former health secretary Janette Garin and former budget secretary Florencio Abad. 

“Aquino, Garin, Abad and other officials are primary conspirators and must be held criminally liable and prosecuted for all the tragedy, damage and possible deaths resulting from the Dengvaxia mass vaccination program,”Gordon said. – With Sheila Crisostomo