Senator Panfilo Lacson. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
Senator Panfilo Lacson said he found it “difficult” to believe that former President Benigno Aquino III was “capable of committing graft and corruption.”
“Having worked closely with ex-PNoy (Aquino) both in the Senate and Malacañang, it is difficult for me to believe that he was capable of committing graft and corruption,” Lacson, who served as rehabilitation czar during Aquino’s time, said on Twitter on Wednesday.
His statement came shortly after Senator Richard Gordon released a draft report of the Senate blue ribbon committee which recommended the filing of a graft case against Aquino over the P3.5-billion Dengvaxia mess.
READ: Aquino, Abad, Garin ‘caused’ Dengvaxia ‘tragedy’ – draft report
It was during the time of Aquino when the government procured the vaccine and first administered it to over 800,000 people. In November last year, however, pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur warned that Dengvaxia may be harmful to people who have not been previously infected by the virus.
Lacson did not say however whether or not he would sign the draft report as he has to read it yet.
“I haven’t read the draft as it is still a draft and probably not the final committee report to be routed among the committee members,” he said in a text message.
“What I’m invoking is my personal belief based on personal experiences about the former president having worked with him both in the Senate and in the executive,” Lacson added. /muf/ac
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