IT’S THE LAST DAY of the year and we have an election year coming up so I’ll leave you something to chew upon and it’s not vegetarian or carnivore.
Of course it’s political, something about a politician seemingly sweeping under the rug an issue he seems adamant investigating before.
The issue is now very inconvenient in aid of election.
Sometime in February more than 10 months ago Cong. Ferjenel Biron of the 4th District of Iloilo said these in a congressional hearing/investigation on the controversial Dengvaxia issue:
* From ABS-CBN News, Feb. 5 2018: “We’re talking of a product, a biological product which safety and efficacy has not been established even from the country of origin… Kung hindi siya rehistrado sa Europe what business do we have importing this product here?”
* From Rappler, Feb. 5 2018: “If it wasn’t cleared in its home country, why was it cleared in the Philippines?”
* From GMA News Feb. 5, 2018: “What is your business of exporting your product in other countries if it has not been registered to the European FDA? If you were not able establish safety in your country, you have no business exporting your product…We should have waited for this product to be approved in the country origin. Kasi ang nangyayari, ginagawa tayong guinea pig ng Sanofi. Kasi kung naging istrikto tayo and required strictly that this product should be registered in French FDA before we allowed it to be exported to our country.”
And 10 months after, there are now more than 154 children dead, all linked to the fact that they were vaccinated with Dengvaxia.
Likewise 10 months after, Congressman Biron is strangely silent about the Dengvaxia issue and is as quiet as a graveyard.
Just in case there was an epidemic of short-term memory loss among the natives, let me park some facts about Dengvaxia:
P3.5 billion, almost the entire budget of the Department of Health, have been approved in record time just a couple of months before the 2016 elections to purchase from French Pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur the dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.
The principal characters in this scandal uncovered from the Aquino government are: President Noynoy Aquino, Budget secretary Florencio Abad, Finance secretary Cesar Purisima and Health secretary Janet Garin.
According to French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur, its Dengvaxia works as expected in people already exposed to the dengue virus; but in those who haven’t, the vaccination is linked to an elevated risk of severe disease developing from a subsequent dengue infection.
DOH, then headed by Secretary Garin of Iloilo, bought from Sanofi P3.5-billion worth of Dengvaxia and started a public dengue immunization program in March 2016 targeting public elementary school pupils that are at least nine years old.
Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrelita Suansing said the approval of the vaccines and the allocation of P3 billion to purchase them “seemed hasty, impulsive and might have been grossly disadvantageous to the government.”
Let’s put this way the whole deal with Sanofi Pasteur: Sen. Richard Gordon condemns the vaccine procurement as a supposed “midnight deal” and he says there is a need to probe the “procurement process and why the DOH immediately started inoculating schoolchildren even before the issuance by the WHO of the pre-qualification guidelines.”
The big question that comes to mind is, why the rush? This Dengvaxia deal with Sanofi Pasteur was “done and dusted” just months before the 2016 elections and the term of then President Noynoy Aquino ends, likewise for his co-terminus Cabinet Secretaries.
Was it part of a “fund raising “scheme for ‘Daang Matuwid’s’ 2016 presidential election kitty or as pabaon for some outgoing ‘Daang Matuwid’ officials?
Whatever the ulterior motive was, it is apparent that the stupidity, greed and apathy of those “yellow shirts” that make up then President Noynoy Aquino’s ‘Daang Matuwid’ crew resulted in an inadvertent genocide of 800,000 Filipino schoolchildren.
Take note of these strong words from Cong. Ferjenel Biron at the height of the congressional investigation of the Dengvaxia issue: “Kasi ang nangyayari, ginagawa tayong guinea pig ng Sanofi” …
Yes, definitely the 800,000 Filipino schoolchildren were made “guinea pigs” and as a licensed medical doctor, Congressman Biron certainly is an authority on what a “guinea pig” is, particularly in the medical sense of the word.
Now making schoolchildren as unwitting guinea pigs in a foreign pharmaceutical’s Dengue vaccine experiment resulting in putting these 800,000 schoolchildren at a very high risk for severe Dengue is up there in the same level as that Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele conducting medical experiments on Jews in Auschwitz Concentration Camp during World War 2.
And 10 months after at the eve of an election year, Congressman Biron, now wannabe governor of Iloilo, has pledged “undying love” with the Garin Clan of the 1st District of which the female “lead role” in the Dengvaxia scandal, former 1st District representative and Health secretary Janette Garin, belongs to.
What happened along the way Ferjie, baby?/PN
