HOUSE Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Sunday believed those behind the corruption in the procurement and implementation of the Dengvaxia vaccine could not get away with the law as Sen. Richard Gordon saw “conspiracy” in the acquisition of the vaccines.
Gordon raised the “conspiracy” theory in reply to questions in a radio interview whether there was irregularity in the meeting between then Health secretary Janette Garin and Sanofi executives in Paris in May 2015.
Garin admitted in a television interview she met with Sanofi Pasteur officials in Paris for a briefing on the vaccines in the presence of officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
In related developments:
•Executrive Director Julius Lecciones of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center on Sunday said he was willing to testify before a Senate inquiry to shed light into the P3.5-billion procurement of the dengue vaccine.
He admitted his direct involvement in the procurement of the vaccines on orders of Garin.
“The Department of Health through the health secretary directed us to procure Dengvaxia. I did not see any… legal or illegal since from time to time, we procure on behalf of the DoH,” he said.
“The P3-billion budget was transferred to me which was paid to Zuellig [Pharmaceutical], the supplier, distributor,” he added.
He maintained the procurement of the Dengvaxia vaccines was above board and was awarded to a winning bidder under under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.
“That was a competitive bidding, and not a negotiated bidding,” he said.
• The Philippine Children’s Medical Center has started to closely monitor 839 members of the Quezon City Police District and their 489 dependents who have been inoculated with a first shot of the dengue vaccine in September.
Dr. Julius Lecciones, PCMC executive director, along with QCPD’s Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, spearheaded an intensified monitoring and surveillance strategies dialogue at Camp Karingal to allay fears of the adverse effects of the anti-dengue vaccine.
He advised the police officers not to panic, and instead to wait for the World Health Organization to finish its investigation.
“If you ask me, too, if one who has not completed the three shots of the vaccine could be prone to severe dengue just like those who have completed the three shots, I cannot really answer that,” he said.
Records show that 839 QCPD personnel together with 498 dependents and other civilians were injected with the vaccine on a voluntary basis last September.
Even walk-in clients have been inoculated with a first shot of Dengvaxia.
According to Eleazar, of the 839 police officers inoculated with the vaccine, seven percent had dengue history.
Because of a looming Senate inquiry, Alvarez said he was reluctant to back the reopening of a congressional inquiry into the P3.5-billion mass dengue immunization program to be initiated by the House committee on good government and public accountability chaired by Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel.
“We are still thinking it over because the Senate will be investigating. Besides, there is still the impeachment we have to attend to as well as the other pending bills,” he said.
“We will renew our probe in light of Sanofi Pasteur’s admission that Dengvaxia is unsafe for people who never had dengue fever, plus evidence that payments for the supplies of the vaccine were not authorized in the 2016 General Appropriations Act,” he added.
Garin blamed her predecessor, Enrique Ona, for the Dengvaxia vaccine procurement, saying it was during Ona’s term when the campaign for vaccine started.
Ona, for his part, said the country was just part of the Dengvaxia clinical trials when he was then the health secretary.
Pimentel said Sanofi-Pasteur had not yet admitted the adverse effects of Dengvaxia when Congress began its probe.
“Also at that time, the committee was not aware that funding for the vaccine was simply sourced from budget savings, which might be illegal,” said Pimentel.
