By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez,
Interaksyon

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE YET that would directly link Dengvaxia to the death of 39 individuals who earlier received the vaccine, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said Monday.

“As of latest count, 39 na ang naitala na pumanaw. Sa kasalukuyan, ito po ay iniimbestigahan. Ang mga ito ay nabakuhanan ng Dengvaxia ngunit hindi maaaring iugnay direktamente na ang pagkamatay ng 39 ay dahil sa Dengvaxia [Thirty-nine have been reported dead so far. Right now, this is being investigated. These people were injected with Dengvaxia but the deaths of the 39 cannot be directly concluded as having been caused by the vaccine],” he told the joint inquiry Monday by the House committees on good government and on health.

Mr. Duque said a task force formed under the Department of Health (DoH) is investigating the deaths with the assistance of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). He said the department has submitted a copy of the report of the PGH to the Department of Justice, Senate and the House on the initial 14 deaths.

“The objective is to complement our findings. It doesn’t mean that because the Public Attorney’s Office has its own investigation, the PGH results are wrong, and vice-versa,” he said.

Mr. Duque appealed to all bodies conducting their respective investigations to work together.

“This is a huge challenge confronting not just the public health system, but the entire government. The right strategy is to have a whole of government approach. The pinpointing should end, we need to collaborate,” he said.

For his part, former president Benigno S.C. Aquino III said Monday that he would have stopped the administration of Dengvaxia had government been informed that the vaccine from Sanofi Pasteur could not completely shield the children from dengue.

“Ang pangako ng Sanofi, ginawa nila iyong vaccine para wala ng risk … Dati, meron kang vaccine good for all four serotypes … Noong 2017, iba na yata ang sinasabi, nadagdagan na ng kung hindi ka pa naimpeksyon ay pwedeng lumala … bigla na lang sasabihin nila pag nagkaroon ka ng vaccine na ito, wala ka paring proteksyon, parang nabaligtad sa sinabi nila noong una,” he said.

(Sanofi’s promise was they made the vaccine to eradicate the risk … Before, you had a vaccine good for all four serotypes … In 2017, they were saying something else, that if you had no prior information it might be worse … suddenly they said that even if you received the vaccine, you were still not protected, the opposite of what they said at first.)

“Sa baligtarang sagot, talagang dapat ihinto (On hindsight, it really should’ve been stopped) …” he told the hearing of the House of Representatives.

The former president also made a pitch to let only experts speak on the Dengvaxia issue to avoid spreading panic through unfounded conjectures that can only harm the public welfare.

“Silang mga aral at eksperto, sila po ang ating pagsalitain para mapayuhan tayo nang maayos (The learned and the experts, let them speak so we can be advised properly),” Aquino said at Monday’s hearing of the House of Representatives’ committee on good government and public accountability.

Former Budget secretary Florencio B. Abad, for his part, said funds were allocated only after the vaccine had been given a certificate of product registration by the Food and Drug Administration in December 2016.

At that time, he said the budget for 2017 had already been approved. Thus, Mr. Aquino had to approve the allocation of funds from government savings.

He said there was also a memorandum from the DoH stressing the need for the vaccine because of the high incidence of dengue.

A SOUTH KOREAN fugitive wanted by authorities in Seoul for operating a multi-million-dollar telephone fraud scheme has been caught in Manila and is poised for deportation.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI), in a statement released yesterday, identified the suspect as 35-year-old Jung Hyojin, who headed a criminal organization in Korea from 2013 to 2015 that defrauded Korean victims of more than $8 million. The BI said the suspect is an overstaying and undocumented alien in the Philippines as his passport has already been canceled by the Korean Government. BI Commissioner Jaime H. Morente said Mr. Jung, who is the subject of an Interpol red notice, was issued three arrest warrants by the Seoul Central District Court where he was indicted for organizing a fraud syndicate, an offense that carries a maximum jail term of 10 years. BI data shows Jung fled to Manila on Feb. 23, 2015 and did not leave the country since then.

OIL COMPANIES are raising the prices of petroleum products this week after giving consumers two straight weeks of price cuts. Gasoline will increase by P0.65 per liter (/L), diesel by P0.85/L and kerosene by P1.15/L.

Most of the companies that sent their advisories as of late afternoon on Monday said they would impose the new prices at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

The price increase for kerosene is the biggest so far for 2018, and the first time this year to exceed one peso per liter. This week’s hike is also the biggest for diesel since the second week of September. For gasoline, the increase is just 15 centavos lower than the P0.80/L increase in the second week of January this year.

In early January, the Department of Energy (DoE) projected the prices of petroleum products to include the full impact of the new excise tax rates by March or April.

Based on DoE computations, the price of gasoline starting on Jan. 1 — the start of the first trance of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) — will increase by at least P2.97/L. Diesel will increase by P2.80/L and kerosene by P0.36/L.

The price increases also include the 12% value-added tax (VAT), the DoE had said. — Victor V. Saulon

NLEX CORP. yesterday formally opened the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) Mabiga interchange and the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) Sta. Ines-Magalang exit.

The new Mabiga interchange is now a full diamond junction with access ramps with entry and exit toll plazas connecting SCTEx and MacArthur Highway, removing the need to make a U-turn.

“This major expressway redesign is seen to improve road safety on this strategic location where the two expressways systems merge with the local traffic network,” the company said in a statement.

The P105-million Sta. Ines interchange improvement, meanwhile, involved the construction of a right-turning exit ramp to Mabalacat-Magalang road, improving direct access to local roads in Magalang, Pampanga.

“These enhancements are intended to advance safety and productivity for both motorists and commuters by improving the connectivity of our expressways to and from the MacArthur Highway and other local roads in Pampanga,” Metro Pacific Tollways and NLEX Corp. President and CEO Rodrigo E. Franco said in the statement.

In 2016, NLEX Corp. added eight kilometers of new expressway lanes in Mabalacat City, including new bridges at Barangays Balem and Quitanguil. The project segregated northbound and southbound motorists along separate carriageways.

NLEX is part of the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is one of three Philippine subsidiaries of Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being PLDT, Inc. and Philex Mining Corp. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., maintains an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo

IS CHINA’S naming at least five seamounts in the Philippine Rise that big a deal, and should we be worried? Yes, says a maritime expert at the University of the Philippines (UP). This is because, according to Dr. Jay L. Batongbacal, the director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at the UP College of Law, China made their naming of features in the South China Sea as the basis of their claim for sovereignty over disputed territories in the vital sea lanes, including those within what Manila calls the West Philippine Sea. Addressing the Senate committee on science and technology hearing on Benham Rise Monday, Mr. Batongbacaol noted that China has almost completed developing military bases on three artificial islands it built on three features that roughly encircle the Kalayaan Island Group. — interaksyon.com

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT Units (LGUs) may face criminal liability for failing to protect and preserve Boracay Island, President Rodrigo R. Duterte warned. In a media briefing at the Palace on Monday, Feb. 26, Presidential Spokesperson Herminio Harry L. Roque said the President was “emphatic, during the [previous] Cabinet meeting, in reminding the LGUs that they will incur criminal liability for malfeasance and misfeasance for their failure to protect the natural environment in Boracay.” “He said it, he was very emphatic; although he will wait for the recommendations of (Environment) Secretary (Roy A.) Cimatu,” the spokesman added. According to Mr. Roque, the President had given Mr. Cimatu “60 days to come up with recommendations on what to do with Boracay.” “So we have to wait until the expiration of the 60 days. All these recommendations are coming before the expiration of the period,” Mr. Roque said. He likewise stressed that the directive of the President was “to remind the local government units that it was their obligation to safeguard the environment.” — Arjay L. Balinbin

THE Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (DoST-Phivolcs) will inaugurate today, Feb. 27, the Ibajay Seismic Station located inside the Aklan State University’s Ibajay campus. Phivolcs, in a statement, said it aims to expand the Philippine Seismic Network by establishing additional earthquake monitoring stations located strategically all over the country. The Ibajay station will particularly benefit Aklan province and Panay Island as a whole, which is transected and bounded by active earthquake generators. Among the strongest tremors recorded in the island were the magnitude 7.2 in December 1621 that changed the course of Aklan River, and a magnitude 8.1 in 1948, also referred to as the Lady Caycay earthquake, considered one of the biggest earthquakes in the Philippines that damaged numerous historical churches in Panay Island.

AT LEAST 14 government agencies and nongovernment organizations (NGO) entered into a Memorandum of Agreement(MoA) last week to strengthen the law enforcement efforts in the coastal areas of Cebu province. These include Cebu Provincial Government, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu (IBP), Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO), Philippine Coast Guard District Central Visayas (PCG-7), Philippine National Police (PNP), Oceana Philippines, Rare, Inc., Philippine Earth Justice Center, Environmental Legal Assistance Center, Archdiocese of Cebu, and Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation, Inc. (CCEF). The initiative was spearheaded by the Provincial Agriculture Office. The MoA is intended to eradicate illegal fishing and to effectively manage and develop fishery resources through environment-friendly and scientific fish production and harvest. One of the agreement’s highlights is that local government units are compelled to enact resolutions for the purpose of granting cash incentives to fish wardens and mandatory boat registration.

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ZAMBOANGA CITY celebrated its 81^st charter day anniversary on Feb. 26, with Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III as keynote speaker during the commemorative program held at the city hall grounds.

The city was established through Commonwealth Act 139 approved on October 12, 1936 by then President Manuel L. Quezon. Zamboanga City was awarded the Most Improved local government unit by the National Competitiveness Council in 2017 based on various indicators, including economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure and resiliency.

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