Top Aquino administration officials promptly approved the disbursement of P3.5-billion public funds to pay for what was seen to be a hasty acquisition of an “unproven” anti-dengue vaccine, Senate probers confirmed on Monday.
Sen. Richard J. Gordon noted the speed by which the funds were released to pay for the procurement of Dengvaxia aroused suspicion among Senate probers, citing concerns that the vaccination of 830,000 people is “now turning into a major health nightmare.”
Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, suspects a “conspiracy” in the Aquino administration’s procurement of the P3.5-billion Dengvaxia vaccines from French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur.
He said this was triggered by reports reaching the Senate that the funding for the procurement of the vaccine was not even found in the annual national budget, also known as the General Appropriations Act (GAA), as “there was no assurance yet that the vaccine was safe to be administered.”
“There are very, very strong signs there may be a conspiracy,” Gordon said. “In the first place, it is not in the GAA,” the senator added, referring to the budget allocation for the dengue vaccine acquisition.
Moreover, Gordon suspects the funding was “only inserted” by its proponents who “found a way to make the budget insertion.” He added this was what made the transcation “suspicious.”
Gordon said that findings of the Senate Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations, or the Blue Ribbon Committee, also indicated that no less than former President Benigno S. Aquino III and former Health Secretary Janette Loreto-Garin held several meetings with Sanofi officials.
Gordon added Senate probers were, likewise, informed these meetings resulted in the “acceleration of the procurement process,” fueling suspicions the Dengvaxia procurement may have been supply-driven instead of needs-driven.
“Is this [Dengvaxia supply deal] needs-driven or supply-driven?” Gordon said. “In government, when you are approached, they court you; they supply medicines or other things not much needed by government. After these meetings, the process is fast-tracked.”
Gordon recalled that Garin’s May 2015 meeting with Sanofi Pasteur executives, “though not irregular on face value, creates a circumstantial connection leading to irregularity.” The senator added the Aquino administration “bought and rolled out the dengue vaccines” from Sanofi in 2016, during the time Garin was the secretary of the Department of Health (DOH).
The Senate chief prober clarified, at the same time, that while former President Aquino may not have been invited to Monday’s hearing, Gordon did not clear him of any culpability in the dengue vaccine mess, considering his meetings abroad with Sanofi executives and the fact that the funds used for the procurement were realigned from the savings from Miscellaneous Personnel Benefit Fund pertaining to the DOH.
Gordon said that in order “to re-align the budget without getting approval from Congress, only someone from higher up can order this.”
He added that former Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad “cannot walk 10 meters without the President knowing, especially with this kind of amount—P3.5 billion.”