No evidence to pin Dengvaxia mess on Aquino, allies say

MANILA, Philippines — More allies of former President Benigno Aquino III on Thursday came to his defense following a damning draft report by a Senate panel that ascribed guilt to the ex-Philippine leader over the controversy involving anti-dengue shots, saying the document has no evidence to support the allegation.

The strongly-worded draft report by the Senate blue ribbon panel chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon damned Aquino over his administration’s mass vaccination of anti-dengue shot Dengvaxia among school children supposedly due to rising cases of the disease.

The report is not yet the official panel stand on the issue as it is still to be signed by the members of the blue ribbon and health committees.

Gordon, who belongs to the caucus allied with President Rodrigo Duterte, said Aquino was guilty of “malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance” in the mess created by the mass vaccination program started during his administration.

Alejano: No appreciation of facts and solid evidence

The report however did not recommend any charge against Pauline Ubial, Duterte’s first Health secretary, who continued the program.

Rep. Gary Alejano (Magdalo), an ally of the former leader, said that the report had “no appreciation of facts and solid evidence.”

“There should have been thorough investigations and conciliation of facts and findings of medical experts from which the recommendations of the committee should have been based,” he said in a statement.

He also slammed the report for mixing the issue with politics and personal feelings, which Alejano said imperils the welfare of the public.

He also stressed that no one, including the Public Attorney’s Office, in congressional probes said that there was a direct causal relationship between the reported deaths of some children and the vaccine.

Alejano urged the government to relay accurate information to the public to assuage its fears amid reports that some Filipinos were refusing the government’s other vaccination programs following the anti-vaccine shot mess.

Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, the former president's cousin, meanwhile underscored that no one profited from the anti-dengue program, contrary to insinuations of graft contained in the report, a stand supported by Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday.

“There was no talk during any of the hearings that somebody profited from it,” the senator said in Filipino.

He also defended the ex-Philippine leader, who is his cousin, against allegations that he was responsible in the controversy involving the program.

Sen. Aquino said that the former president did not have “psychic” powers that could have allowed him to foresee the negative consequences of the shots.

He said that the report should be further debated by the Senate once it was sent to its members for signing.

More than 800,000 Filipino children were given the anti-dengue shot in an effort to address cases the spiking number of infections in some regions.

Sanofi Pasteur, the French pharmaceutical firm which produces Dengvaxia, issued an advisory in November last year saying that the vaccine may increase the risk of severe dengue in children not previously infected by the virus.

Sanofi has consistently maintained that the shot is effective and rejected government demand for a refund.