Never in history did 830,000 lives, mostly of children, have been endangered for an indiscretion by an administration in a questionable project that reeked of kickbacks.

The House panel which investigated the P3.5-billion Dengvaxia fiasco, however, appeared to have held back on the charges recommended against those principally involved, namely, former President Noynoy Aquino, his Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and erstwhile Health Secretary Janette Garin.

“When asked if he knew of the string of cases of Sanofi in which the French firm was fined tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, Aquino said he was not aware of it.

The House recommended graft, technical malversation and grave misconduct charges against the three and other minor officials.

The charges are not even commensurate to the suspected deaths as a result of the vaccine and the massive discomfort that Filipino families suffered.

The anti-dengue mass immunization, through a contract with French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pasteur, was timed close to the 2016 national elections which made its purpose questionable primarily due to the huge amount involved.

The House probe established collusion among the former officials “to ensure that a large quantity of Dengvaxia would be purchased by the government to vaccinate schoolchildren in Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog regions.”

The National Bureau of Investigation also found elements of conspiracy in the purchase of the vaccine.

The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) had a better appreciation of the weight of accountability of Noynoy and his gang as it indicated “studying the possibility” of pressing murder charges against them. The PAO had recommended earlier reckless imprudence resulting in homicide charges.

In the investigations held at the House, Noynoy and Abad both used the presumption of regularity defense on the expensive contract.

Dengvaxia later turned out to be in the experimental phase when Noynoy and his officials signed the lucrative deal with the French drugs maker.

Sanofi in late 2017 issued a statement saying the Dengvaxia vaccine may cause severe dengue to those inoculated without a history of the disease.

On those who are healthy and have been injected with the vaccine, the negative effects may last for five years based on findings of medical experts and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The presumption of regularity was also used by Noynoy and his minions as defense for their patently corrupt acts in the highly anomalous Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) in which more than P150 billion was diverted from the budget to convert these as discretionary funds of Noynoy.

It was found during the probe that the purchase of the Dengvaxia vaccine was approved by Aquino and Abad even if the program had no allocation in the 2016 national budget.

In a separate Senate probe, Sen. Richard Gordon said undue haste has been strongly

established in the P3.65-billion immunization program.

Noynoy also claimed during one of the hearings that he was unaware of the past records of Sanofi as an excuse for his approval of the P3.5-billion contract.

When asked if he knew of the string of cases of Sanofi in which the French firm was fined tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, Aquino said he was not aware of it.

The first meeting of Aquino with Sanofi officials happened in November 2014 in Beijing during an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting when the dengue vaccine was first discussed.

This was followed by another meeting in Paris, France in 1 December 2015 at the sidelines of the Climate Change Conference where he was with Garin.

Aquino said during those meetings he was not informed of anything on the background of Sanofi.

A mass immunization, when Dengvaxia was used, was not even needed as Health Secretary Francisco Duque said there was no epidemic of the disease during the time the vaccine was administered.

His defense of being innocent of the Sanofi misdeals hardly absolves Noynoy since as President he was mandated to undertake due diligence on government contracts, particularly in one which he was personally involved in.

Since lives were put on the line, Noynoy and his yellow gang should be made to account in full.