Aquino is accountable for the Dengvaxia mess

Former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.

This is perhaps one of the disturbing issues that have put Former President PNoy in a bad light, again. Introducing the Dengvaxia mess which has taken the lives of more than 60 Filipino children. But with all the finger-pointing being made, is PNoy, who approved Dengvaxia in good faith accountable for what happened?

What is Dengvaxia?

Dengvaxia is the first licensed anti-dengue vaccine developed by Sanofi Pasteur. It is currently being used by more than 20 countries that have patients victimized by the dengue virus carried by mosquitos. The dengue virus infects more than 150 million each year around the world with a fatality of 20% if untreated. Dengvaxia was developed for the sole purpose of dengue immunization with a readily-available vaccine.

Why did the Philippine government avail for Dengvaxia?

The Philippines is a tropical country with frequent rains that are hotspots for mosquitos possibly carrying the dengue virus. It has an average of 40,000 dengue cases each year with claims to have reduced every year due to improvements of clinics from around the country. With the hope of getting rid of the fatal dengue virus, the Philippine government, with its agency the Department of Health (DOH), sought to avail of Sanofi-Pasteur's Dengvaxia. The deal cost around 3.5 billion pesos but the Former Health Secretary Janet Garin claims that "the money came from personal donations and that no taxpayers money were used to tie the knot on the Dengvaxia deal". But the government-owned Philippine Children Medical Center (PCMC) contradicted Garin's statement and the government released the budget for its procurement.

After the deal rolled out, there are over 860,000 children vaccinated with Dengvaxia.

But what went wrong with Dengvaxia?

Dengvaxia, on its 3rd initial stage, was already administered to 860,000 Filipino children, some with no history of dengue. Despite the release of the World Health Organization's notice on Dengvaxia being risky on children with no history of being infected with Dengue Virus in March 2016, Former Health Secretary Janet Garin still continued the mass vaccination. A US-based scientist also warned the DOH about the dangers of Dengvaxia in a video but was not included in the Senate hearing which the DOH also ignored. The new Health Secretary after Garin suspended the vaccination but was already too late. There are already more than 3,000 children hospitalized in April of 2018 after being vaccinated with Dengvaxia, the death toll has reached 60 and counting showing the same symptoms and causes of death.

The timeline for the Dengvaxia deal can be found on CNN's website.

Is Former President Aquino accountable for the Dengvaxia mess?

Yes, Former President Aquino met the Sanofi officials twice in 2014 and 2015 which Senator Richard Gordon claimed was a violation of Republic Act No. 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees. After the second meeting in 2015, there is already an immediate fund ordered by the Former President for Dengvaxia which he defended in the Senate hearing.

Conclusion

No matter how and where we put it, PNoy is accountable for the Dengvaxia fiasco due to the fact that he met with the Sanofi officials twice and has made an immediate funding for the vaccine despite it being not included in the 2016 National Budget. But, the case is strong for PNoy who can just finger-point the scandal through Former Health Secretary Garin and claim that he was just being fed with bad information about the vaccine, hence, the immediate approval for the sake of children that will possibly be infected with dengue each year.

PNoy's accountability is that he, together with the DOH officials he appointed, made the 800,000+ children guinea pigs for Sanofi. Instead of saving countless lives against the dengue virus, it has resulted into deaths of innocent children whose parents were not fully educated by the Government about the vaccine and despite warnings from a well-known Scientist and the World Health Organization, still continued the mass vaccination. May the children victimized by this state-sponsored deaths rest in peace.