The Senate Blue Ribbon committee resumed Wednesday its investigation on the P3.5 billion worth of dengue vaccines that had been given to 830,000 students.
Present at the hearing were the parents of the children who received Dengvaxia and later on died; Sanofi Pasteur Asia Pacific head Tomas Triomphe and representative Ta-Wen Yu; World Health Organization country representative Gundo Aurel Weiler.
Also in attendance with Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, former health secretaries Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial and Janette Garin; Public Attorney’s Office chief Persica Rueda Acosta and forensic laboratory head Erwin Erfe.
Senator Richard Gordon, committee chairman, said they intend to know if the vaccine was the result of "regulatory capture," which occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or political concerns of special interest groups.
“Kung nadodomina ang regulatory agencies. Imbes na umakto na mag-regulate para proteksyunan ang interest ng mamamayan baligtad ang nangyayari sa regulatory capture, ang pinoprotektahan nila ay interest ng nire-regulate nila," he said in his opening speech.
He clarified that the hearing was not a contest to determine which side was arguing better.
"We will not entertain 'yung nagsisigawan o naglalaban ng issue, hindi kayo ang issue. Ang issue ay kung tama ang ginagawa ng gobyerno, kung 'yung ibinigay na gamot ay para sa proteksyon ng tao," he said.
He earlier urged the public to focus on the real issues and the accountability of the personalities who pushed for the procurement and roll out of the Dengvaxia, and to not be distracted by the alleged tactics employed by Sanofi Pasteur.
He said the Blue Ribbon Committee remains four-square in seeking accountability from top to bottom, stressing that public health, especially those of the children, who were administered with the vaccine is still paramount.
He said the committee was ensuring that the government, particularly the Department of Health (DOH), would provide prompt and necessary medical assistance to the people inoculated, in the event that they develop adverse side effects.
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