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Batas Mauricio

THE silence of both former President Noynoy Aquino and former Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro on the misfortune that has befallen more than 800,000 elementary school children who were forcibly vaccinated with the Dengvaxia vaccine before Noynoy’s term ended on June 30, 2016 is truly deafening.

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As I see it, this appears to be a deliberate attempt or a sinister maneuver to make a escape goat or a fall guy out of former Health Secretary and former Iloilo Rep. Janet Garin, to make her the sole official of the defunct Aquino government that would take the blame and perhaps even to face the charges that could include plunder for the Dengvaxia scam.

The fact is, the controversy over the Dengvaxia vaccine has been furiously raging on in the whole country for the last several days already but, Noynoy and Luistro have yet to utter just a single word on the matter. Indeed, the vaccine could not have been administered on our hapless school children if Noynoy and Luistro did not give their consent to it. Why do they appear to be trying to exculpate themselves now by their silence?

The case of Garin and Dengvaxia should serve as a lesson to all officials and employees of the Philippine government, at all times. Not just because they have been ordered by their superior officers, or even by the President of the Republic himself, to do certain things, will they already blindly obey even if it would be clear that the orders are highly dubious and would even place them in peril.

The term of office of the superior officers or of the President would surely end one day, and once they step down from power, the protection they promised to their subordinates who would obey even their clearly illegal orders would similarly vanish. The problem perhaps would be a little more bearable if the superior officers would still try to help the subordinates who obeyed them.

But what would be truly deplorable is that, as the case of Garin and Dengvaxia now shows, the subordinate would be left alone to face retribution. If, for any reason, it would happen that Garin would be inveigled to accept sole responsibility for the vaccine mess even if it is clear she acted merely on orders of her higher-ups, it would only be her who would then rot in jail and who may even be ordered to refund the P3.5 billion that the government paid for the vaccine.

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From Facebook: “When Rev. Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this was what they heard:

‘Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, `Woe to those who call evil good’, but that is exactly what we have done.

“We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

“We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot anti-abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

“We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

“We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!’

“The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In six short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively.

“The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea. With God’s kind help, may this prayer reach the farthest corners of our country, so we can be known as a nation under the care of God…”

 

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com

 

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