New plunder case filed vs Aquino over Dengvaxia mess

MANILA, Philippines — Another plunder complaint has been lodged against former president Benigno Aquino III and three of his Cabinet secretaries for their roles in the alleged anomalous P3.5-billion dengue mass vaccination program.

Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio and anti-corruption advocate Diego Magpantay of Citizens Crime Watch charged Aquino, former health secretary Janette Garin, former executive secretary Pacquito Ochoa Jr. and former budget secretary Florencio Abad for plunder, malversation of public funds and graft before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Also named respondents were 18 other incumbent and former officials of the Department of Health (DOH).

Topacio, a lawyer of Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), clarified that he and Magpantay filed the complaint in their personal capacities as private individuals.

They urged the anti-graft office to investigate all the respondents for plunder after they allegedly used their positions to unjustly enrich themselves with government funds through the P3.556-billion immunization program.

“The undue intervention of the highest officials in the negotiation, the timing of the program, the haste in the release of the budget, the enormity of the amount involved and the use of a fund intended for a different purpose... leave no room for any noble or righteous motive or intention on the part of the respondents,” the complaint read.

Aquino’s spokesperson, lawyer Abigail Valte, said the latest complaint “has less to do with a true desire to seek accountability, but more of a ploy to get more government posts for themselves.”

“Even the severely inebriated can see the pattern: anyone who files a complaint against the former president is magically given an appointment,” Valte added.

She stressed that those who filed the complaint can be assured that Aquino is ready to respond to their unfounded complaints when required to do so.

When asked, Abad said he has not seen the complaint and finds it “difficult to respond.”

“But, nonetheless, I am certain and confident that no fraud or any irregularity accompanied the procurement of the vaccines. So, the complaint is baseless and I’m certain the ombudsman will dismiss,” Abad said.

The complaint stemmed from the Aquino administration’s purchase of more than P3 billion worth of Dengvaxia vaccines manufactured by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur and distributed locally by Zuellig Pharma.

Dengvaxia were administered to about 800,000 public school students aged nine years old and mostly from the National Capital Region (NCR), Central Luzon and Calabarzon starting April 2016.

But the DOH suspended the mass immunization program on Dec. 1, 2017 – a day after Sanofi Pasteur disclosed that Dengvaxia poses threat of severe symptoms to those who had not previously been afflicted with dengue.?Last December, former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director general Augusto Syjuco Jr. filed a plunder complaint against Aquino and Garin before the ombudsman. Also in the same month, women’s party-list group Gabriela charged Aquino, Garin and Ochoa also before the anti-graft office. Both cases were in connection to the Dengvaxia controversy.

Just like Syjuco and Gabriela, Topacio and Magpantay alleged that Aquino and his Cabinet secretaries conspired in purchasing bulk of the vaccines in 2015 even when there was no comprehensive study yet on the efficacy and risks of the drug.

They claimed further that the release of the fund for Dengvaxia was anomalous because the purchase was not listed in the 2015 General Appropriations Act.

While the money for the purchase was supposedly sourced from government savings under Miscellaneous Personnel Benefit Fund (MPBF) and Pension Gratuity Fund (PGF), they pointed out that Section 71 of the 2015 GAA states that “in no case shall a non-existent program, activity or project be funded by augmentation from savings or by the use of appropriations not otherwise authorized in this Act.”

Topacio and Magpantay also questioned the supposed “haste” in the Food and Drug Administration’s grant of Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) for Dengvaxia, even when phase 3 of the clinical trial for the drug had yet to be completed, and Garin’s grant of certificate of exemption to the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC), which gave the latter the go signal to purchase the drugs from Sanofi.  – With Aurea Calica, Edu Punay