MANILA – Former president Benigno Aquino III insisted he cannot be charged over the controversial dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.
Aquino appeared at the Department of Justice on Monday to file a counter-affidavit over the graft and technical malversation charges lodged against him.
“To date there has been no categorical finding by medical experts that the dengue vaccine has directly caused the deaths of vaccinated children,” he said.
It was during Aquino’s time as president when the government bought Dengvaxia to be used for the world’s first massive public dengue immunization using the vaccine.
When the funding for the purchase was approved, “there was no evidence adduced by experts that the vaccine was not safe and effective,” Aquino said, insisting that the Dengvaxia program had undergone the “proper procurement process.”
“There has not been any definitive finding by any court, tribunal or fact-finding body as to whether the deaths suffered were directly attributable to the vaccine,” said the former president.
Aquino, former Health secretary Janette Garin and former Budget secretary Florencio Abad attended Monday’s preliminary investigation hearing into the charges filed by the Volunteer Against Crime and Corruption and the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution.
They were accused of violating Section 3 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, Section 65 of the Government Procurement Reform Act, Article 220 (technical malversation) of the Revised Penal Code, and Article 365 (criminal negligence) of the Revised Penal Code, among others.
Aquino and other respondents committed criminal negligence, the complainants said, claiming that there was an established link between Dengvaxia and the deaths of several inoculated children.
The Aquino administration initiated the nationwide immunization program in summer of 2016. It bought P3.5 billion worth of Dengvaxia shots for 1 million public school children in regions reported to have the highest incidence of dengue.
The Health department stopped the program in December 2017 after Sanofi Pasteur said the vaccine may cause more severe symptoms on vaccinees who have not yet been infected by the virus.
More than 800,000 school children had been inoculated at the time./PN
