Former high-ranking gov’t officials, Sanofi officials also charged
(Eagle News) — Former President Benigno Aquino III is facing a second criminal complaint over the Dengvaxia mess.
Apart from Aquino, charged with graft and for violation of the Government Procurement Reform Act were former Health Secretary Janette Garin, former Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad, and former Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa.
Also charged were Sanofi Pasteur officials—chief executive officer Olivier Brandicourt, vice president Guillaume Leroy, medical director Dr. Ruby Dizon, Asia-Pacific head Thomas Triomphe, and country chair for Sanofi-Aventis Carlito Realuyo.
The complaint was filed before the Ombudsman by members of the militant group Gabriela and the parents of children vaccinated with the controversial dengue vaccine.
“Respondents acted with evident bad faith as their actions did not only connote bad judgment, but also showed a palpably fraudulent and dishonest purpose to do a conscious wrongdoing for their own personal gain or out of ill motive,” they said.
On December 15, former Technical Education Skills Development Authority chair Augusto Syjuco filed mass murder and plunder raps against Aquino and several of his former high-ranking government officials over the Dengvaxia snafu.
The snafu started after Sanofi admitted the vaccine–which had been administered to over 800,000 schoolchildren under the national government’s vaccination program that began under Aquino’s term in 2016—could cause “severe cases” in those who had not had dengue.
Sanofi said the information came to light only recently.
