Former PH President Aquino answers raps over Dengvaxia controversy

Former Philippine President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, ex-Health secretary Janette Garin, and ex-Budget chief Florencio Abad appeared at the Department of Justice today to give their counter affidavit to a criminal complaint brought by the Dengvaxia controversy.

The three are facing charges for their alleged violation of the anti-graft and procurement laws in connection with the PHP3.5 billion (US$66.5 million) purchase of the controversial anti-dengue vaccine, technical malversation, and multiple homicide and physical injuries through criminal negligence for buying and carrying out a nationwide immunization program which allegedly put the health of over 890,000 children at risk.

Aquino cited the World Health Organization and medical journal “The Lancet” saying that the vaccine is reportedly effective for 30 months after being given and that only 0.2 percent of those who did not have a previous dengue infection will likely suffer from a severe infection, ABS-CBN News reported.

“To this day, nothing has proven that Dengvaxia caused deaths,” Aquino told reporters after the DOJ panel investigation.

The maker of Dengvaxia, French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, said in November that a new study showed how the drug might increase the risk of severe dengue in people who have never had the virus before.

Sanofi’s announcement came after the Philippines’ Department of Health administered the anti-dengue vaccine to hundreds of thousands of school children.

Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio and Citizens Crime Watch President Diego Magpantay filed the complaint against Aquino, former Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Garin, Abad, along with other former and current health officials in May.

Topacio and Magpantay have accused Aquino as well as his co-respondents of allegedly embezzling part of the PHP3.5 billion (US$66.5 million) budget for the procurement of Dengvaxia.

They alleged that only PHP3 billion (US$57 million) of the budget was released to the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, while the remaining PHP500 million (US$9.5 million) remains unaccounted for.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s government has already scrapped the vaccination program after several parents claimed that their children died after being given the world’s first dengue vaccine to be licensed.