Senator Leila de Lima on Saturday slammed President Duterte's supposed failure to discipline Public Attorney's Office (PAO) chief Persida Acosta for the delay in the procurement and the people's fear of COVID-19 vaccines.
De Lima has also blamed Acosta for the vaccine makers' demand for an indemnification agreement as well as the aversion of public on vaccination.
"Mr. Duterte, why can’t you discipline PAO Chief Persida Acosta for having caused this grand mess? Delayed supply of vaccines due to suppliers’ insistence on an indemnity agreement and prevailing vaccine scare—both flowing from the Persida-induced Dengvaxia controversy via her dubious claims about said anti-dengue vaccine," the detained senator said in her dispatch on February 27.
"Answer: Like your inaction on the shenanigans of Vitaliano Aguirre and Sandra Cam, you simply cannot afford to discredit Acosta. She, like Aguirre and Cam, along with other creeps like Ferdinand Topacio, has faithfully served as an operator and witness handler in your obsessive 'Destroy de Lima' campaign, pressuring and coercing would-be witnesses, soliciting false testimony from them and parading them before the kangaroo House Justice Committee hearings. That’s the truth," she added.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon earlier attributed to the PAO the requirement of pharmaceutical companies for an indemnty clause before the delivery of vaccine supplies.
It was Persida who led the complaints against the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, whose manufacturer, Sanofi-Pasteur, was among those charged for the deaths of those administered their vaccine.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. also confirmed that Pfizer, in asking for an indemnification deal from the government, feared that it would suffer the same fate as Sanofi should people experience adverse effects from their COVID-19 vaccines.
The Department of Health had previously cited the Dengvaxia controversy as a factor for the public's aversion on vaccination, contributing to the rise of measles cases and the reemergence of polio in the country in the past few years.
In a statement early February, the PAO, however, denied that it was anti-vaccine and that it caused the fear of vaccination in the country.
Instead, it said "personalities linked to Dengvaxia have vilified the PAO, making it appear s anti-vaxxers out to destroy the people's confidence in vaccines."