Selective justice still?

The Department of Justice’s indictment of former Health Secretary Janette Garin and 19 others over the Dengvaxia scandal was partly a fireman’s job to stop the hysteria that is causing the lives of children as their parents stay clear of immunization programs.

“Noynoy’s excuse was not even well-thought of since his supposed Solomonic decision risked the lives of 830,000 Filipinos.

It may have been the rush in coming up with the petitions that Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and his team of lawyers may have missed one or two essential data resulting in the complaint missing former President Noynoy Aquino and his Rasputin Budget Secretary Butch Abad.

Yet, Guevarra, a good lawyer, can’t have missed very glaring evidence that has been made public during the Senate hearings on the yellow operations which was the P3.5 billion purchase of anti-dengue vaccines from French manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur.

The collusion of Abad and Noynoy was too plain. Abad introduced supposed reforms in the national budget that included the “use it or lose it” policy which in turn was made an excuse in defending the rush for the immunization program.

The way Abad and Noynoy explained the funds juggling done to finance the cost of the purchase of the vaccine from Sanofi Pasteur for a mass immunization program showed a very similar maneuver employed in the dreaded Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) that created a Palace money pool which some called Noynoy’s pork barrel.

The Supreme Court (SC) in 2014 struck down specific acts of the Palace in creating the DAP which were:

• The withdrawal of unobligated allotments from the implementing agencies and the declaration of the withdrawn unobligated allotments and unreleased appropriations as savings prior to the end of the fiscal year and without complying with the statutory definition of savings contained in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) (the budget);

• The cross-border transfers of the savings of the Executive to augment the appropriations of other offices outside the Executive, and

• The funding of projects, activities and programs that were not covered by any appropriation in the GAA.

Despite the High Court decision, Noynoy and Abad continued to employ what the SC disallowed.

Noynoy and Abad, at one of the Senate hearings, admitted realigning funds from the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF) which is the usual source of DAP funds to pay for the P3.5-billion supply contract with Sanofi.

The budget for Dengvaxia had to be secured before the end of 2015 since it would be “very, very difficult” to find a source for the budget and to get Congress to approve it by the first quarter of 2016 which was an election year, according to both.

The question, of course, was why the rush in procurement when there was no dengue epidemic then.

The motivation to have the huge contract the soonest came as an offshoot of Noynoy’s meeting with Sanofi Pasteur executives on 1 December 2015.

Abad admitted suggesting that the MPBF be used for Dengvaxia since the savings would revert to the treasury after 31 December.

Abad then claimed the realignment was allowed since what was augmented was the Expanded Program for Immunization despite the Dengvaxia purchases not being listed among items in the EPI.

A total of P14.5 billion worth of MPBF was declared as savings from 2015 for use in projects of various agencies, including the dengue vaccine, under the EPI.

Noynoy then said the choice for him as president then was simple, which was to implement the program or wait for at least a year and “expose the public to the risk of contracting dengue.”

Noynoy’s excuse was not even well-thought of since his supposed Solomonic decision risked the lives of 830,000 Filipinos.

Of course, the 2016 elections were happening months away from the lucrative program and can’t be far off the mind of the scheming Liberal Party which both Abad and Noynoy are part of.

The Palace was cryptic in welcoming the filing of the reckless imprudence resulting in homicide cases on the limited group as presidential spokesman Sal Panelo said it may, at least, end the politicization of the issue.

“We hope that true justice and peace will be attained as this is the only way we can deliver proper closure to the victims of the vaccination initiative and their families,” he said.

Closure can’t be had without the principal actors being made accountable.