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By Ellson Quismorio
The trio made up of former President Benigno S. Aquino III, former Health Secretary Janette Garin and former Budget Secretary Butch Abad will not be convened to relaunch the the House on the disorder of Dengvaxia.
(EPA / MANILA BULLETIN)
Thus, suggested the representative of the isolated district of Camiguin, Xavier Jesus "XJ" Romualdo, chairman of the House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability, who discussed the issue during the past year with the committee of health.
"We will invite all alumni or officials in office, from the lowest to the highest in the government hierarchy, who have played a role in the registration and acquisition of Dengvaxia as well as in the planning and implementation of the project. implementation of the vaccination program, "said Romualdo.
"But we do not intend to invite them all together," he said.
Earlier, Romualdo said the committee would call Aquino, Garin and Abad to testify as resource persons, Garin being the main role.
The trio clashed with congressmen in February as part of the investigation into the controversial anti-dengue vaccine.
However, only the Bayan Muna party representative, Carlos Zarate, was able to call Aquino, but the latter was not urged by the chairman of the commission, Surigao del Sur, 2nd District Representative, Johnny Pimentel, to give correct answers.
The former president was also allowed to leave the proceedings early as a courtesy.
When asked why he preferred to invite resource people separately, Romualdo said, "The committees (good governance and health) will review each step of the vaccine program and call the appropriate resource people accordingly.
Meanwhile, another member of the House supported this Romualdo initiative. "This will allow for a smoother and more complete presentation of the facts. We barely arrived at anything the last time they came together, "said the member, who declined to be identified.
The investigation is expected to be reopened this month and Romualdo is expected to hold about three hearings.
"There seemed to be something missing at the time of writing the final report. We had questions we wanted to ask, "said Camiguin Solon, who succeeded the debate on good government following the uprising in the House in July that saw the installation of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the presidency.
It will be remembered that the previous administration of Aquino had used in 2016 the relatively new vaccine, Dengvaxia, in response to the outbreak of dengue cases.
Made by the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur, the drug was administered to about 900,000 schoolchildren before the suspension of the mass immunization effort by the current Duterte administration.
The suspension was a result of Sanofi's own admission, in November 2017, that dengvaxia could be harmful for children who were "seronegative", or for those who had never contracted dengue fever before but who had been vaccinated against dengvaxia .
About 100 vaccinated are already dead.
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