FORMER President Benigno Aquino III and former Health Secretary Janette Garin would not be exonerated, if ongoing investigations would find them liable for the miscalculated dengue vaccination program, Malacañang said on Thursday, December 14.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said for now, President Rodrigo Duterte would let the Senate and the Department of Justice (DOJ) conduct their respective investigations on the controversial procurement of dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.
Duterte earlier declined to find fault in the past administration's failure to foresee the adverse effects of the dengue vaccine.
“Of course, (Duterte) will not spare anyone. The President said, let the investigaton of the DOJ and the investigation of the Senate to continue. If someone needs to be held liable, they will be held liable,” Roque told Palace reporters, when asked if Duterte will be absolving Garin and Aquino over the Dengvaxia controversy.
“For the time being though, he (Duterte has said he) would have done the same thing. You can't deprive the people of what they thought would be protection against a deadly disease when it (the cure) existed,” he added.
Roque made the remark after the President said in a speech delivered in Pasay City late Wednesday, December 14, that it was not his habit to file cases against former presidents, including Aquino.
Prior to Duterte’s pronouncement, he refused to implicate any individuals in the P3.5-billion purchase of Dengvaxia, saying that he is not in the position to blame anyone.
Duterte likewise stressed that he merely wants to know the “truth” since the past administration seemed to have done the launching of the anti-dengue drive “in good faith.”
“I am not prepared to condemn anybody there simply because we bought it. Not as yet. So I'm not prepared to pass judgment. I can only inquire and hope that everything will give us the truth because anything here in this planet requires truth,” he said in an interview in Taguig City Wednesday.
“Considering my position, I will order the implementation, unless there's a study or a counter statement to the efficacy and the danger of the drug. I don't have any choice and many have already died (because of dengue). There's no advice not to use it, or the advice was not proper, I cannot blame anybody,” Duterte added.
When asked about Duterte’s remark that he has no plan to file cases against his predecessors, Roque said the President merely wanted to address the issue in a “sober, calm, and reasoned” approach.
"He understands why the prior administration implemented the dengue vaccine. Thousands were afflicted with dengue. It's a deadly disease. There's a vaccine that they knew, in good faith, would be able to help and they implemented it,” Roque said.
“But my personal view is it shows that the president is really a statesman. He could have joined other individuals in the process of politicizing this issue. And I think you know that there is a political noise now but he opted to adopt a very sober and a very calm response to the controversy, and reasoned response to the controversy,” he added. (SunStar Philippines)