2 solons oppose raps vs Aquino

Two senators disagreed with the graft charges against former President Benigno Aquino III recommended by Sen. Richard Gordon in his draft report on the Dengvaxia controversy.

Opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a member of Gordon’s blue ribbon committee that probed the P3.5-billion botched mass immunization program, on Thursday said he would not sign the report and doubted that the Senate would adopt it.

In a tweet on Wednesday night, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said “it is difficult for me to believe that he was capable of committing graft and corruption.”

Gordon said Aquino, his budget secretary, Florencio Abad, health secretary Janette Garin, and seven other former Department of Health officials were involved in a conspiracy to purchase the vaccine from French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur to inoculate 830,000 children. They also violated the state ethics code, Gordon said.

In an interview with ANC television, Trillanes said there was still no “definitive information” to back the charges and there was no proof that Dengvaxia has caused any death.

He said Gordon’s recommendation was “political harassment” in view of the Duterte administration’s attacks against vocal critics.