Garin cleared in P3.55-billion Dengvaxia case

National

CITING insufficient evidence to establish criminal liability, the Sandiganbayan has acquitted former health secretary and House Deputy Speaker Janette Garin and several other health officials in the case involving the government’s controversial P3.55-billion Dengvaxia vaccine purchase in 2015.

In its 43-page decision promulgated on Oct. 13, the anti-graft court’s Special Second Division cleared all the accused of graft and technical malversation charges, ruling that the prosecution failed to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt, a report by Philstar stated.

The case stemmed from the Department of Health’s realignment of government funds to finance the procurement of Dengvaxia under the government’s School-Based Immunization Program. On December 29, 2015, a Special Allotment Release Order was issued, allocating P3,556,155,900 for the vaccine purchase.

Prosecutors alleged that the health officials acted in evident bad faith by proceeding with the procurement despite Executive Order No. 49, series of 1993, which requires government drug purchases to be listed in the Philippine National Drug Formulary.

The Sandiganbayan found that the prosecution failed to establish that the accused had a fraudulent or dishonest purpose. The court also noted that the Department of Health had a mechanism for obtaining exemptions from the formulary requirement for national health programs.

In assessing the allegations, the court cited testimonies from the Commission on Audit indicating that no public funds had gone missing in connection with the transaction.

The ruling also addressed the adverse consequences associated with Dengvaxia administration to schoolchildren, but found insufficient evidence linking those incidents to malicious intent on the part of the officials who implemented the vaccination program.

“Whatever the adverse consequences of the Dengvaxia vaccines administered to schoolchildren may be, the Court cannot find sufficient link that such unfortunate incidents were motivated by evil or sinister design by the program implementors, mainly by the accused,” the anti-graft court said.

On the charge of technical malversation, the court ruled that an essential element of the offense was absent: the use of public funds for a purpose different from that for which they had been legally appropriated.

Although Garin had requested the use of government savings to finance the urgent dengue vaccination program, the court said the authority to declare and transfer savings within the executive branch rested solely with the President under the Constitution and the 2015 General Appropriations Act.

The decision noted that then-President Benigno Aquino III approved the fund augmentation through then-Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, using savings from the 2015 Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF).

The court consequently held that responsibility for directing the use of the MPBF savings for the vaccine purchase rested with Aquino, who authorized the augmentation, rather than Garin, who had requested the funds.

Garin’s co-accused were likewise cleared of technical malversation because they did not qualify as accountable public officers with legal custody or possession of the funds, a requirement for liability under the offense.(MyTVCebu)