Gordon report on Dengvaxia up for plenary debate

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 14 senators have signed the draft Blue Ribbon committee report prepared by its chairman Richard Gordon on the inquiry into the Dengvaxia vaccine controversy, allowing the start of debates on its contents next month.

Gordon aired his gratitude to his colleagues for signing the report, even though many signified their reservations about its findings when they affixed their respective signatures.

Aside from Gordon, the other senators who signed the Dengvaxia report were Joseph Victor Ejercito, Gregorio Honasan, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Sherwin Gatchalian, Grace Poe, Francis Escudero, Manny Pacquiao, Ralph Recto, Cynthia Villar, Loren Legarda and Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III.

“With 14 senators signing the committee report, I am happy that it will be discussed on the floor finally where it should be discussed. I recognize that not all of my colleagues agree with the report but I am willing to debate and discuss it on the floor,” Gordon said.

“And we can move forward by ensuring that something will be done for the people who were vaccinated and also seeing to it that accountability will be exacted to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future,” he added.

Several senators have refused to sign the report because of their objections to the findings, particularly on the recommendation that former president Benigno Aquino III should be charged criminally.

Senators Panfilo Lacson and Antonio Trillanes IV have openly stated their objections to the report while Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon submitted his dissenting vote with a lengthy explanation.

In the committee report, Gordon recommended Aquino and his Cabinet members that included former budget secretary Florencio Abad and former health secretary Janette Garin be charged with violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act because of how they allegedly conspired to facilitate the purchase and implementation of the Dengvaxia anti-dengue vaccine program.

Gordon said this was just one of the recommendations in the report and that it also called for the provision of sufficient budget for monitoring, in particular sero-testing to determine who were previously seronegative, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of all children injected with Dengvaxia. 

It proposed to authorize the allocation of a portion of the P1.2 billion refunded by Sanofi Pasteur to the government for this purpose.

“While I don’t mean any ill to anyone, the purpose of the investigation was to find out the truth behind the incident which placed the lives of more than 830,000 children in danger,” Gordon said. 

“We want to seek justice for these children and protect them. The Department of Health, as the sentinel of public health, must not be used for political ends,” he said.