
Despite saying that he did it in good faith, former President Benigno S. Aquino III is still not yet off the hook and may still be held liable for technical malversation for approving the P3.5-billion dengue vaccine deal, Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said yesterday.
Ejercito said Aquino and former Budget and Health Secretaries Florencio “Butch” Abad and Janette Garin have a lot to account over the speed in which the Executive approved and procured the Dengvaxia vaccines for the government’s Expanded Program for Immunization or EPI.
Granted that he signed the deal with Sanofi Pasteur believing it may avert a possible dengue outbreak in the country, Ejercito said the former Chief Executive, as the last person to sign the document, should have informed Congress of the Executive departmentās decision to acquire the medicines as it was not part of the General Appropriations Act.
āNobody knew about their purchase and said that at the end of the year, they only used the savings. I donāt think that anybody from Congress is aware of these transactions or would be transactions precisely because these are savings,ā Ejercito said, referring to Garin and Abadās statements that the R3.5-billion fund was culled from the Miscellaneous and Personnel Benefits Fund.
Ejercito, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, said that even if the President has the prerogative to realign savings at the end of the year, the fund is ātoo big an amountā not to be included in the General Appropriations Act.
āIf you look at the amount, I think itās necessary that lawmakers, the peoplesā representatives, to know about it. We are not a rich country, and thus the R3.5-billion is a very huge amount,ā he pointed out. (Hannah L. Torregoza)
778681 523146Youll uncover some fascinating points in time in this post but I do not know if I see all of them center to heart. Theres some validity but I will take hold opinion until I appear into it further. Great post , thanks and we want considerably more! Added to FeedBurner too 258952
468055 933123Im having a small issue. Im unable to subscribe to your rss feed for some reason. Im utilizing google reader by the way. 801834
917585 996747Wohh just what I was looking for, appreciate it for putting up. 306588
801362 239658Dude. You mind if I link to this post from my own website? This is just too awesome. 736057
933284 447005Wonderful blog layout here. Was it hard creating a good seeking web site like this? 891867