Noynoy ‘skinned alive’ by Gordon on Dengvaxia

Batas Mauricio .

WITH the way the hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee led by Sen. Richard Gordon turned out to be last week, the conspiracy and blatant manipulation executed by the government of former President Noynoy Aquino in connection with the purchase of the now-much hated Dengvaxia vaccine to be used as an election propaganda in the 2016 presidential elections became thoroughly clear in the Philippines and in the whole world.

From Gordon’s presentation during the hearing, he managed to literally skin alive and brutally expose the machinations undertaken by the Noynoy Aquino government — from Noynoy himself to former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, to former Health Secretary Janet Garin, and to other officials of the Department of Health — towards releasing the P3.4 billion from government coffers in favor of Sanofi Pharmaceutical Company, the French firm which manufactured Dengvaxia.

It appeared that in just a matter of a few days, negotiations between Noynoy and his subalterns with Sanofi for the purchase of Dengvaxia got completed, including the release of the P3.4 billion to pay for the vaccine even if that expenditure was not included in that year’s annual appropriations. Gordon is right: Noynoy can’t deny his active participation in the Dengvaxia process.

What riles all the more, according to Gordon, was the fact that the Noynoy Aquino government released not only the amount of P3.4 billion even when the election period for the 2016 presidential polls was already in full swing. It would appear, Gordon said, that some P10 billion was actually released by Noynoy and his ilk for public works projects — like building barangay clinics — even if this was already a prohibited act under the Omnibus Election Code.

A lot of people expressed awe and admiration for Gordon when he declared that his committee would also push for the investigation of the release of that P10 billion for the barangay clinics. Maneuvers like this by the Noynoy Aquino administration have to be disclosed to the public fully, and if the evidence warrants, for the appropriate criminal cases to be filed and for the offenders to be jailed accordingly.

With the massive spending of government funds undertaken by Noynoy’s group in the frenzy of an election period, even if this was expressly prohibited by law, it would be beyond doubt that he and his cohorts from his own political party, the Liberal Party, scammed the entire nation. They should be made to pay for this, up to the last centavo.

No, tell me: why did Noynoy, Abad, Garin, and their followers, dare to spend billions and billions in government funds when this was already clearly prohibited by law? If the truth be told, from the documentary evidence shown by Gordon on Tuesday, it was not possible to hide what they did, what with the huge fund involved. Then, there are also documents that could attest to their illicit maneuvers.

As I see it, there is only one reason for this audacity. Noynoy, et. al. believed that their machinations will not be disclosed. Or, they were convinced that even if there would be a disclosure of what they did, they wouldn’t be penalized. Yes, the question indeed would be: how did Noynoy and his gang come to this conclusion? Well, we can hazard a guess or two. First, they may have thought that one of their kind would win in the 2016 presidential polls. Good thing this did not come about.

Second, maybe they thought that whoever would replace Noynoy would treat them as sacred cows, perhaps because the official who would be investigating these kinds of anomalies and corruption committed by officials of government was someone installed by Noynoy himself –Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales — so that they would be treated with mere slaps on the wrist. Well, truly, God does not sleep one bit!

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com