By Hannah Torregoza
Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Thursday said Public Attorney's Office (PAO) chief Persida Acosta has obviously trained her sights on the Supreme Court with her “alarmist drama antics” on the Dengvaxia mess.
Chief Public Attorney Persida Acosta (left) and Senator Leila De Lima (Manila Bulletin / File Photo)
With the major questions on the anti-dengue vaccination still unresolved and inconclusive, de Lima noted that the PAO chief seems determined to blame Sanofi Pasteur and the former Aquino administration for supposedly causing the deaths of at least 14 children autopsied by non-qualified PAO doctors.
The findings of Acosta's office are being contradicted by the country’s medical experts including doctors of the country’s leading medical institution—University of the Philippines- Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH), a former health secretary, and a host of concerned medical practitioners.
“More and more, we are convinced that everything Acosta now pursues with all the dramatic flair she has accustomed us to is in aid of her appointment to higher office,” de Lima said in a statement.
“Acosta does not hide keeping a moist eye for a seat in the Supreme Court. She might as well have it, but in the meantime she has other uses for the Duterte administration and DOJ (Department of Justice) Secretary (Vitaliano) Aguirre (II),” she said.
That neither the DOJ nor Malacañang is ordering Acosta to desists from her alarmist drama antics, “only goes to show that they are behind this Dengvaxia panic scare to leverage against Sanofi and their target health officials in the Aquino Administration,” she said.
Likewise, de Lima said that while she does not want to demean real and genuinely concerned parents, Acosta and her followers should answer questions over who is paying for the printed T-shirts and streamers worn by angry protesters before the media.
“Who are paying for the printing of these paraphernalia? Who is financing this orchestrated hysteria? It could be none other than the current Queen of Hysterics herself, Persida Acosta, as encouraged by the DOJ and Malacañang,” she pointed out.
“This is not to demean real and genuine concerned mothers. But all this, including the attempted elevator assault on former (health) Secretary (Janette) Garin by hysterically acting mothers, gives the impression that this is a well-funded and concerted effort to intentionally orchestrate panic and hysteria among the public,” she said.
“That Malacañang opts to push and finance this panic and hysteria campaign through Acosta speaks well of how this administration is willing to sacrifice public health and safety for vindictive political ends,” she said.
“Already, parents are refusing all kinds of public-funded vaccinations, thus exposing our children to more danger than the Dengvaxia vaccination was ever proven to have caused, if at all,” she lamented.
De Lima said such actuations of the PAO chief, is more than abhorrent and condemnable—saying it is “patently criminal conduct.”
“Acosta must be stopped and held accountable for creating this panicky mess she is using for her own popularity and ticket to higher office,” the detained senator said.
“Malacañang should just grant her wish and appoint her to the Supreme Court to stop this deadly circus she has created,” she stressed.