Why pick on PAO?

I cannot understand why some people are asking the Public Attorney’s Office to terminate its investigation into deaths of children who underwent government immunization against dengue using the controversial vaccine Dengvaxia. And I also cannot see why some people are taking it against PAO chief Persida Rueda Acosta for talking about the results in media.

First, it is the duty and responsibility of the PAO to provide free legal services to citizens who cannot afford them. That is precisely what it is doing for parents seeking justice for the deaths of their children. Second, it was the media that sought out Acosta, not the other way around. If Acosta refuses to talk, the media will likely accuse her of withholding information culled from a public investigation.

But why should the focus be on the PAO and Acosta? They did not impose themselves on the consciousness of those whose sensibilities may have been offended by the work they are doing. Dengvaxia happened. The PAO and Acosta had absolutely nothing to do with their happening. This thing just developed a life of its own. The PAO and Acosta merely got drawn into it, as have the rest of us.

The mass immunization involving Dengvaxia and thousands of Filipino children has become one of the worst medical crises to ever hit the Philippines. And we would not have had any inkling about the creeping threat to our lives until the vaccine’s manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, made a public announcement that the vaccine presented some potential threats to certain types of people to whom it had been administered.

A flood of investigations naturally followed. The one by Acosta’s PAO is just one of them. But why single out the PAO investigation? Is it because the PAO investigation, away from the cameras and unhampered by politicians taking on roles of medical experts, has succeeded in covering much ground and is now well on its way to achieving its ultimate goal of seeking justice for the deaths of some unsuspecting dengue vaccine recipients?

Again, the roles of the PAO and Acosta are merely consequential. They only came into the picture because Dengvaxia happened. So instead of asking the PAO to terminate its investigation, which by the way should complement all other investigations, and for Acosta to shut up, perhaps the thing to do here is ask the PAO and all other investigating bodies to go beyond where their investigations are now.

For it is now very clear that while Dengvaxia was only in its initial stages of introduction, with the Philippines only being the third country to try it next to Brazil and Mexico, somebody very high up the pecking order placed an order for billions of pesos worth of the new vaccine to be massively administered almost to every child in our unsuspecting nation.

Not only was such a huge order placed for such an unfamiliar drug, it was placed right after some discreet meetings took place. So quickly did the ball start rolling that it cannot be helped if people start smelling something. And it is this that should get the utmost focus and attention. Who was it who ordered the order? More importantly, for what purpose was such an ill-advised order given?

* * *

Just as I finished this article, a letter came from Cebu Vice Governor Agnes Magpale reacting to a previous article in which I identified her as one of those involved in a movement to celebrate the 5th Centennial of the Christianization of the Philippines in 2021 instead of in 2065. Vice Governor Magpale said she is not involved with the movement but merely attended an organizational meeting for an event meant to place Cebu in the center of commemorating Magellan’s epic voyage. I stand corrected.