“If it can happen in one stroke of Abad, the ruling yellow cabal then could have done the same maneuver several other times.”

An issue that the discredited yellow regime of former President Aquino wants drowned out by vicious noises being generated against President Rody Duterte is the Department of Health (DoH) anomalies which are turning out to be bigger than the pork barrel scam.

The difference between both scandals is while the P10-billion misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) took years, the two-in-one scam involving the P8.1 billion Barangay Health Stations (BHS) program and the P3.5-billion Dengvaxia immunization drive, based on Senate and House hearings held on it, was signed and delivered by former Budget Secretary Butch Abad in a single day, on Dec. 29, 1985.

Both the BHS and the Dengvaxia projects were rushed, the congressional hearings found.

The funding for the BHS project was diverted from allocations in the budget for senior citizens, making it more abominable.

At a previous Senate blue ribbon committee hearing, panel chairman Sen. Richard Gordon said the Dengvaxia purchases from French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pasteur were rushed because they were made despite the absence of a dengue epidemic then.

The rush happened after Noynoy met with Sanofi Pasteur executives on Dec. 1, 2015. Abad admitted at that hearing he suggested savings from the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF) be used for the Dengvaxia purchases since they would revert to the treasury after December 31.

Abad claimed the realignment was allowed since what was augmented was the Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI). Yet the Dengvaxia purchases were not part of the EPI.

Gordon said a total of P14.5 billion worth of MPBF was declared as savings in 2015 for use in projects of various agencies, including the EPI.

It turned out the same budget diversion scheme was used for the BHS.

In an earlier House inquiry into the BHS anomaly, Department of Health (DoH) finance officer Laureano Cruz said the Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) released by Abad for the project did not even have a specific funding source, except for a note stating the funds would be obtained from “regular agency fund 2015 GAA.”

The bidding was even conducted months before the SARO was released based on the findings of the House probe.

Dr. Rio Magpantay, then vice chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of the DoH, said the notice for the auction of the project was made in July 2015 and the bidding in September 2015.

The Senate hearing, last Wednesday, found the SARO of the Dengvaxia and BHS projects were even contained in a single document to apparently facilitate their approval.

Senators in the probe pointed to the likely purpose of the Dengvaxia program and the BHS programs being cobbled up to build up the yellow campaign kitty for the 2016 elections which was a total political disaster for the Liberal Party (LP).

Also, just like the Dengvaxia vaccine program, the P8.1-billion BHS project was initiated during the time of former Health Secretary Janette Garin who is an LP stalwart.

The packaging of the two multibillion-peso projects into one document also showed the brazenness of the yellow cabal in pilfering public funds that even the Supreme Court flagged in its 2014 ruling declaring Executive actions in the creation of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as unconstitutional.

If it can happen in one stroke of Abad, the ruling yellow cabal then could have done the same maneuver several other times over.

The BHS project has a noble goal in paper of putting up 5,700 new rural health units to ensure barangays have access to primary health care with public elementary identified as sites for the health stations.

Even Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara said the BHS project should be continued less, of course, the yellow manipulations.

It seems the yellow straight path to perdition is paved with good intentions.