Senator Richard J. Gordon on Thursday prodded the Office of the Ombudsman to open an independent investigation into the Aquino administration’s rushed purchase of the controversial anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia costing taxpayers P3.5 billion.
Gordon suggested that Ombudsman probers closely look into the haste with which Aquino administration officials facilitated acquisition of Dengvaxia vaccine supply, even as its efficacy has yet to be fully verified.
The senator cited reports reaching the Senate that the previous administration moved to fast-track delivery of the vaccine, soon after former President Benigno S. Aquino III personally met officials of vaccine supplier Sanofi Pharmaceutical during a visit to France in December 2015. It was reported that a few days after the meeting, the P3.5 billion was released to pay for the delivery of the vaccine supply and some 700,000 schoolchildren were vaccinated with Dengvaxia by April 2016.
Gordon said graft probers should focus their inquiry on how public funds were spent without authority from Congress through the annual budget law, or the General Appropriations Act.
Information reaching the senator indicated that the P3.5 billion used to pay for the Dengvaxia vaccine was realigned through the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program that the Supreme Court later found to be in violation of the Constitution.
Even as the Ombudsman has yet to confirm it is opening a separate investigation of the case, Gordon said he is set to open a separate Blue Ribbon Committee inquiry on Monday.