IT'S the new year. Our year ended with twin tragedies, the flooding of the Davao River that rendered thousands homeless for Christmas and the fire that razed NCCC Mall and killed 38 young people.
We have mourned, we have expressed our outrage and we have sent our assistance and condolences. Let us thank ourselves for the concern we have shown. Now, let us keep our sights on how the investigation about the fire is proceeding to make sure that the lives lost are not lost in vain.
And then we retrieve the concern that has blanketed the country before the year ended: the Dengvaxia vaccine and how it was administered to 800,000 children who are now human time bombs, like guinea pigs in the drug manufacturer's search for commercial cure for dengue.
The latest news on this is that a panel of experts from the Philippine General Hospital will be reviewing the circumstances on the deaths of 14 children aged 9 to 11 and came from Central Luzon, Southern Luzon and Metro Manila who were among those administered Dengvaxia.
According to Health Undersecretary Enrique Domingo last Friday, the task of the panel is to see if there is "any relationship between the fatality and the vaccine.”
The piloting of dengue immunization program using Dengvaxia was among the biggest programs of the Aquino Administration as it was about to end. Less than two years after the program was launched and President Benigno Aquino III had already bowed out of power, pharmaceutical firm Sanofi-Pasteur released an advisory saying its vaccine could cause severe dengue symptoms among those who had no previous exposure to the virus. By then close to a million children have already been vaccinated.
How such can happen is but a peek into how deep and wide corruption in government can creep into our lives.
Thus, beyond just keeping watch over the 800,000 children and how they are faring, what the citizens should monitor and keep a vigilant watch over is how those linked to how Dengvaxia even came to be administered on the 800,000 will be held accountable.
How those who caused this to happen are to be made accountable is a test on how resolute the government is in its vow against graft and corruption.
Graft and corruption manifests in many ways, and most of the time the victims are the vulnerable and powerless. In this case, the children.
This issue cannot be swept away from our collective attention because this is but one manifestation of how a corrupt system can bring our people, and worst, our children to the brink of death without rancor, without regret.