THE Justice department has issued an Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order against former President Benigno Aquino III, former Health secretary Janette Garin and six other officials of the previous administration who approved the P3.5-billion dengue immunization program in 2015.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II issued the lookout order against Aquino even as he revealed that a government official has surfaced to testify on the alleged irregularities in the deal with French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur.
Aguirre said the official has volunteered to cooperate with the fact-finding investigation being conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation aimed at determining the civil and criminal liabilities of officials behind the Dengvaxia vaccine mess.
“This government official is a very, very important witness who knows the transaction from the beginning to end,” the Justice secretary said in an interview.
However, Aguirre did not name the official yet so as not to jeopardize or preempt the testimony.
Earlier, Aguirre ordered the NBI to investigate and build cases against those involved in the dengue vaccine immunization project after pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pasteur, which produced Dengvaxia, advised the public that the vaccine is effective for people who have had dengue prior to immunization but creates a risk of a “severe” case of dengue for people who have not yet had dengue.
In a three-page memorandum, Aguirre issued on Saturday an Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order against Aquino and Garin, who already appeared before a Senate inquiry on the matter. Also covered by the lookout order are former Budget secretary Florencio Abad, former executive secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Sanofi Pasteur vice president of dengue vaccine Guillaume Leroy, Sanofi chief executive officer Oliver Brandicourt, Sanofi Pasteur medical doctor Ruby Dizon, Sanofi Pasteur representative Thomas Triomphe and Sanofi-Adventis Philippines country chair Carlito Realuyo.
“Considering the gravity of the possible offenses which may have been committed, there is a strong probability that they may attempt to place themselves beyond the reach of the legal processes of the government by leaving the country. Thus, we deem the issuance of an ILBO against the subject persons prudent in order to at least monitor the itineraries of their flight, travel, and whereabouts,” Aguirre said, in directing Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente to implement his lookout bulletin order.
Aguirre issued the LBO, which requires the subjects to secure a permit from his office for foreign trips, following the filing of a complaint against Aquino and others before the Office of the Ombudsman by the Gabriela party list and parents of children who were given the vaccine.
The respondents were specifically charged with violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for approving the program that was allegedly “grossly disadvantageous to the government and detrimental to the health and welfare of its recipients, due to the lack of comprehensive study on the effectivity and risks of the vaccines.”
Parents of two school children who supposedly died after getting the vaccine—Christine Mae De Guzman and Anjielica Pestilos—also surfaced last week and demanded justice.
Assisted by the Public Attorneys’ Office and Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, the parents of De Guzman and Pestilos sought accountability of officials and personalities behind the vaccine.
De Guzman received Dengvaxia vaccine on April 16, 2016 through a school vaccination program at Sisiman Elementary School in Bataan.
After six months or on Oct. 11, 2016, Christine Mae complained of headache and had high fever. After two days, she was taken to the Mariveles Health Service Cooperative Hospital where she was diagnosed with severe dengue. The girl died of severe dengue on Oct. 15 last year.
Pestilos, on the other hand, died just last Dec. 15, three months after receiving the vaccine also through an anti-vaccination program in school last September.
While her death certificate indicated that she died of systemic lupus erythematosus or an auto immune disease, PAO forensic expert Erwin Erfe believes that it was also a case of death by severe dengue.
PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta and VACC lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said they would build a class suit as well as criminal and administrative cases against the former officials.
They also urged the NBI to expedite its actions to prevent reported efforts to cover-up the case, particularly the alleged conspiracy of senior DoH officials to sabotage the investigation.
“We’ve been informed by an insider that they are already shredding the documents in the DoH. So I urge Secretary Aguirre to order the NBI to now raid DoH and seize the documents in the DoH,” Topacio said.
Even as the investigation continued, a senior Health Department official said the dengue vaccine program was “aboveboard” and “all within legal limits.”
Dr. Herminigildo Valle, Health undersecretary for field implementation and management, said that while the purchase order for Dengvaxia vaccine was faster than other government transactions, the Department of Health and French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pasteur met all the legal requirements in government procurement.
Valle also said the DoH’s investigating panel saw no proof linking Dengvaxia vaccination to the reported cases of fatalities and instead cited “overwhelming data on the efficacy” of the Dengvaxia vaccine.