Gordon report hints of ‘politicized’ hearing

Sen. Richard Gordon. INQUIRER.net PHOTO/CATHY MIRANDA

Sen. Richard Gordon’s decision to make public the “unnumbered and unsigned” report of the Senate blue ribbon committee on its investigation of the P3.5-billion Dengvaxia fiasco bolstered suspicions that the legislative hearing was “politicized,” opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros said on Friday.

At the same time, Hontiveros again called on the French pharmaceutical firm, Sanofi Pasteur, to indemnify the families of grade school students who had suffered after being inoculated with the dengue vaccine.

‘Saddening observation’

According to the Department of Health, some 830,000 schoolchildren aged 9 to 14 were inoculated with Dengvaxia during a mass immunization program initiated by the Aquino administration.

“It’s saddening that the observation of many that this investigation has been politicized became more apparent,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“Is that really the state of the Senate blue ribbon committee?” she asked.

Hontiveros declined to comment on Gordon’s recommendation to bring graft charges against former President Benigno Aquino III, who is unruffled by the blue ribbon panel’s findings, according to his spokesperson, Abigail Valte.

Surprise recommendation

Valte said Gordon’s recommendation came as a surprise, since the senator himself had previously said during a Senate hearing attended by Aquino that he did not believe the former President committed graft.

“I really don’t know where [Gordon’s] recommendation was coming from,” she said.

Nonetheless, she said, Aquino was ready to face any investigation of his supposed criminal liabilities for approving the vaccination project.

“Former President Aquino has always demonstrated his readiness to answer questions about his decisions as President,” Valte said.