Thinking Pinoy

Senator Trillanes attacked my credibility earlier when he refuted reports saying that US President Donald Trump called him a “narco”.

Ooohhh, did Trillanes himself tacitly admit that we should doubt mainstream media?

TRILLANES, YOU REALLY ARE AN IDIOT.

Part of Trillanes's statement said, “a significant remark like that would've been captured by mainstream media and not released through bloggers, fake news websites and tabloid columns.”

You know, I was hoping that Trillanes statement includes his now-infamous "Gentlepersons."

Anyway, here’s my reply.

That “tabloid” Pilipino Star Ngayon

At 12:00 AM of 30 October 2017, veteran columnist Al G. Pedroche, through his Pilipino Star Ngayon column “Aksyon Ngayon”, published “’Little Narco’ met with Sen. Marco – Trump”, part of which reads:

“Habang pasakay sa Air Force I na siyang ginamit ng Pangulo ng Amerika, tinanong daw ng isang reporter si Trump tungkol sa pagbisita ni Trillanes at ang eksaktong sagot daw ni Trump ay: ‘The Litte Narco met with Sen. Marco.’”

Pedroche’s column was published both in print and online and I have read that column, as I read most major newspapers every morning to prepare for “Karambola sa DWIZ 882 AM”, where I am a co-producer and regular co-host.A snapshot of the print version is shown below:

A snapshot of Pedroche's Pilipino Star column published on 30 October 2017.

A screenshot of the online version is also shown below:

A snapshot of Pedroche's Pilipino Star column (online version) published on 30 October 2017.

What is Pilipino Star Ngayon?

Pilipino Star Ngayon (PSN) is the leading tabloid newspaper of daily nationwide circulation in the Philippines. It is published in Filipino, and it’s owned and operated by PhilStar Daily, Inc., which also owns and operates the major broadsheet Philippine Star.

According to the Philippine Star, PSN is “a wholesome tabloid in Filipino that came to be noted for its commitment to responsible journalism for the mass-based readership”. The paper goes by the slogan "Diyaryong Intelihente ng Masang Intelihente!".

Originally known as Ang Pilipino Ngayon, Betty Go-Belmonte thought of coming up with a tabloid that would cater to society segments that aren’t being targeted by national dailies [Philstar].

In 2013 and 2014, Pilipino Star NGAYON was awarded "Newspaper of the Year" by Gawad Tanglaw (Gawad Tagapuring mga Akademisyan ng Aninong Gumagalaw), an award-giving body in the Philippines composed of critics, scholars, historians, and professors from different colleges and universities [Star].

The 2014 Gawad Tanglaw award was received by no less than PSN editor-in-chief Al Pedroche, the same person who wrote that “Little Narco” column piece.

PSN editor-in-chief Al Pedroche and provincial editor Mario Basco receive the trophy, medal, and citation from Gawad Tanglaw President Norman Llaguno at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in March 2014.

Here are some of the names of current and former columnists for Pilipino Star Ngayon:

Jarius Bondoc, the guy who broke the Roxas Campaign Planes story.
Tony Calvento of “The Calvento Files”
Noli de Castro, former vice president
Ben Tulfo, you know him
Korina Sanchez, you know her
Atty. Jose C. Sison of “Kapag Nasa Katwiran, Ipaglaban Mo!”
Dr. Loi Estrada, former senator and former first lady

By calling PSN a mere tabloid, is Trillanes questioning the credibility of these columnists?

More specifically, is Trillanes questioning the credibility of his own ally, Korina Sanchez-Roxas?

Hilarious.

ThinkingPinoy posts

At 1:55 PM of 31 October 2017 and in reaction to Pedroche’s column, I published a photo on ThinkingPinoy that originally included the following caption:

“TRUMP CALLS TRILLANES A DRUG LORD
US President Donald J. Trump reportedly called Senator Antonio ‘Sonny’ Trillanes IV a ‘Narco’, a colloquial word for a ‘drug baron’ or ‘drug lord’. DOES TRUMP'S GOVERNMENT KNOW SOMETHING?”

Initially, my original post didn’t explicitly cite Pedroche’s column as I felt it’s unnecessary, with Pilipino Star Ngayon being a newspaper of national circulation.

Some readers, however, requested for my source, so I tried to retrieve Pedroche’s column and voila! I discovered that the PSN took it down.

PSN, however, did not issue a retraction or even an erratum, so it’s safe to conclude that PSN stands by what PSN editor-in-chief Pedroche wrote. Moreover, the mere deletion of its online version does not in any way affect the fact that PSN has published the column on paper.

If a news site deletes an article without an accompanying erratum, does that mean it also retracts that article?

No. It doesn’t.

For one, I highly doubt that PSN has recalled or will recall all the newspapers it printed on October 30th. Hence, Pedroche’s claim still stands.

I checked for cached copies of Pedroche’s column, and I archived it. To read the archived cached copy of Pedroche’s column, click here.

Trillanes reacts

At 4:37 PM of 01 November 2017, Sen. Antonio Trillanes published the graphic shown below:

The graphic has an accompanying caption that reads:

"That's fake news. They can't even cite the news outfit that conducted the interview. In the first place, those senior US government officials would not meet with me if I had dubious credentials. It goes to show that this RJ Nieto a.k.a Thinking Pinoy is not thinking after all. Moreover, a significant remark like that would've been captured by mainstream media and not released through bloggers, fake news websites and tabloid columns. Let us be more discerning about these things."

Let’s break it down.

In light of the previous sections, Trillanes basically said three things:

Pilipino Star Ngayon publishes fake news because it “can’t even cite the news outfit that conducted the interview”.
Senior US government officials would not meet with Trillanes if he had dubious credentials.
A significant remark would’ve been captured by mainstream media and not through bloggers, fake news websites, and tabloid columns.

First, Pilipino Star Ngayon as “Fake News”

One thing is clear at this point: ThinkingPinoy published the “narco” comment based on Pedroche’s PSN column.

Now, I’m curious as to how PhilStar Daily Inc. will defend Pilipino Star Ngayon’s Al Pedroche.

After all, a newspaper that has been given Gawad Tanglaw awards for “Newspaper of the Year” for two consecutive years (2013 and 2014) cannot be considered “fake news”, as that would imply that there’s something anomalous about Gawad Tanglaw.

Surely, the “critics, scholars, and academicians” behind Gawad Tanglaw will beg to disagree.

Moreover, it’s hypocritical for Trillanes to demand such standards when he himself is guilty of forwarding dubious claims in the very recent past.

Take, for example, the “BPI Julia Vargas” issue , where he claimed that then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte amassed over a billion pesos in ill-gotten wealth. Asked for his source, he executed an affidavit stating that he got the information from a certain “Joseph de Mesa” who, in turn, got it from an unnamed AMLC official [TP: BangkoSerye].

Mister Trillanes, should I have cited Joseph de Mesa too? Tigilan mo nga ako.

Second, Trillanes’ credibility

“Joseph de Mesa”. Enough said.

Partida, hindi ko pa diyan sinama si Matobato.

Third, “captured by mainstream”

Is Pilipino Star Ngayon, a “Best Filipino Newspaper” awardee, not good enough for you?

ThinkingPinoy did not break that news: it was Pilipino Star Ngayon. Hence, the question should be whether Pilipino Star ngayon is part of “mainstream media”.

While there is no strict definition of what belongs to mainstream media or not, it must be recalled that Pilipino Star Ngayon’s Ely Saludar was made president of the Malacañang Press Corps, replacing Tony Velasquez of ABS-CBN [Star].

If that’s not mainstream enough for Trillanes, I do not know what else is.

And surely, the tabloid reporters belonging to the Malacañang Press Corps will refute Trillanes’ claim that tabloids publish fake news.

But wait, there's more!

Today, broadsheet columnist Mary Ann Reyes of the Philippine Star, on her 01 November 2017 column, wrote:

“While onboard Air Force One, Trump was reportedly asked by a reporter about Trillanes’ visit to the US and this is what the President said: ‘The little narco met with Senator Marco (referring to US Senator Marco Rubio).’”

So now, Mister Trillanes, is the broadsheet Philippine Star still not mainstream enough for you?

Wow! Ang taas ng standards ni Kuya. Wish ko lang e inapply niya ‘yang standards na ‘yan sa sarili niya.

But the story doesn’t end here because I noticed something really fishy.

Sneaky! Sneaky!

This afternoon, [GMA News] and the [Philippine Star] published news articles about Trillanes’ statement-slash-denial, and I saw a very interesting pattern.

Both articles contain the following basic talking points and basically in the same order:

A reference to Mary Ann Reyes’ 01 November Philippine Star column.
Quotes from Trillanes’ denial stament.
References to 31 October 2017 Adobo Chronicles’ satirical article about the same issue.
References to 31 October 2017 ThinkingPinoy’s “Narco” post.

Interestingly, both articles DID NOT mention Pedroche’s 30 October 2017 PSN column, which pre-dated the Adobo Chronicles article.

Now, the two reporters could have argued that they didn’t get to read Pedroche’s PSN piece because it was deleted.

The two reporters’ apparent omission of the Pilipino Star Ngayon column could have been an honest mistake. After all, Hanlon’s Razor [University of California] states:

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

But surely, neither of the reporters will admit to being stupid, so malice, though not yet a certitude at this point, could have been present.

But wait, there's more!

On 31 October 2017, or a day before the two articles were published, veteran journalist Jojo Robles of the [Manila Standard], another mainstream broadsheet, talked about Pedroche’s piece when he wrote:

“According to the columnist, Trump told the reporter during a chat aboard Air Force One that, indeed, ‘the little narco met with Senator Marco.’”

That is, the two reporters seemingly ignored not only the original PSN piece, but also another column piece from another mainstream publication.

Did the two reporters commit the same “honest mistake” twice?

I don’t know, but any self-respecting beat reporter should read all the major stories in the major dailies before she goes to work.

As far as I can see, they either acted with malice, or they’re simply incompetent and lazy.

But who would admit to being incompetent and lazy?

A Possible Damage Control Plan

To help get a better grasp of what’s going on, let me summarize the basic chain of events:

October 30th: Pilipino Star Ngayon publishes article claiming Trump called Trillanes a “narco”.
October 31st : ThinkingPinoy, using PSN as a source, reported that Trump allegedly called Trillanes a "narco”.
October 31st: Manila Standard cites the Pilipino Star column piece.
October 31st: Adobo Chronicles satirizes the “narco” story.
November 1st: Broadsheet Philippine Star picks up the “narco” story.

Now, the two news articles did not mention steps 1 and 3, so that their timeline will only include Steps 2, 4, and 5.

In short, a possible public relations damage control plan for the Trillanes camp could be inspired by what happened to Manila Times columnist Yen Makabenta last month, where the latter got duped by Fake News about a supposed quote from United States Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

Trillanes' potential strategy can be described using the following steps:

First, find a way to get the Pedroche’s PSN column deleted, making it appear that the column piece never existed.
Second, make it appear that Adobo Chronicles broke the news, which would basically discredit the story because Adobo Chronicles is widely known to be a satirical news site.
Third, with the Adobo satirical article up, discredit any further mention of the “narco” quote by making it appear that whoever will write about it got duped by Adobo.
Fourth, to stave off claims that PSN broke the news, discredit PSN by calling it a mere tabloid, without directly naming PSN so Trillanes can avoid incurring the wrath of the Philstar Group.
Fifth, focus the attention and blame on ThinkingPinoy. After all, finding mainstream media outlets to join in this attack against ThinkingPinoy will be easy.

In short, the strategy revolves around the premise that ThinkingPinoy and Adobo Chronicles broke the story, even if it’s Pilipino Star Ngayon that did and even if the Manila Standard has referred to PSN’s column a day later.

Just like what my friend Sass Sasot said:

If the Little Narco story is fake news, why can't Trillanes confront PHILIPPINE STAR about it? Bakit si ThinkingPinoy ay pinag-iinitan niya, eh Philippine Star ang nag-publish?

But there’s one fatal flaw in this possible plan: Trillanes’ initial choice of mainstream allies.

Inday Sara Duterte reveals Trillanes Press Corps?

Trillanes initially found two (unwitting?) allies:

Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez of GMA news
Kristine Joy Patag of the Philippine Star.

These two reporters wrote the two denial-articles published yesterday.

Now, let’s simplify the question:

Did the two reporters (Star’s Patag and GMA’s Alvarez) intentionally omit two crucial sources (PSN and Standard) of the “little narco” comment?

I checked the list of Philippine Star news articles authored by Kristine Joy Patag and I found out that a vast majority of them are about or are sourced from the Senate, suggesting that Patag is a Senate beat reporter. I also checked the list of GMA News articles and found out the same about Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez, i.e. she appears to be another Senate beat reporter.

Yes, Alvarez and Patag appear to be in the Senate Beat, i.e. they are focused mainly on news coming from or about the Senate of the Philippines.

Now, recall that presidential daughter and Davao City mayor Inday Sara Duterte earlier this month wrote a Facebook comment, shown below:

Part of that comment reads:

“Wala si Trillanes pag weekend, walang mainstream media for a presscon kung weekend. Ang bayad ke Trillanes, Monday to Friday before evening news cut-off. Most people watch news and read newspapers Monday to Friday.”

It's worthy to note that NO ONE among the senate beat reporters, where Patag and Alvarez belong, reported about Inday Sara's comment, even if it directly concerns them.

News blackout much?

Well, one thing’s for sure: Patag’s and Alvarez’s respective articles made the evening news cut-off.

And did I say that neither of them attempted to contact me for my side of the story?

Well, what's new?

Bam Aquino, ikaw ang makulit sa pagkuha kamo dapat ng both sides, so papaluin mo kaya yung dalawang ungas na yan?

Trillanes' payroll?

It's funny how some mainstream outlets claimed during the #CocoyGate senate hearing that they have internal ombudsmen who check for abuses within their their ranks. However, I have never heard, seen, or read anybody among them getting fired for corruption.

Should we start canonizing a number of mainstream journalists?

At this rate, yeah, I think we should!

Now, wouldn’t it be fair to ask the question:

Are Kristine Joy Patag of the Philippine Star and Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez of GMA News part of Trillanes’ alleged payroll?

I can’t say for sure, and I leave that job to the “internal ombudsmen” of the concerned news outlets, assuming that such “internal ombudsmen” exist.

But I am a nice guy, so let me help these theoretically existent “internal ombudsmen” a bit.

Who is GMA News’ Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez?

GMA’s Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez drew flak last month when she broke the news about Senator Trillanes’ visit to a Singaporean Bank.

On 19 September 2017, Alvarez wrote “No such account, Singapore bank tells Trillanes [GMA News]”.

Alvarez’s article was accompanied by a [Twitter video] showing Trillanes entering the Alexandra, Singapore branch of DBS bank. Alvarez did not attribute this video to anyone else, so she must have taken the video herself.

That is, unless the Alvarez is based in Singapore, she must have flown to Singapore to cover Trillanes’ trip.

Supporting this theory is a line from Alvarez’s article that reads:

“The branch manager then talked to Trillanes for about 10 minutes.”

From this, we can say that Alvarez was there to witness the event, as this appears to be Alvarez’s direct observation of events as they unfolded.

So who paid for Alvarez’s trip to Singapore? The Philippine Star? Antonio Trillanes? Who?

Trillanes has his own Press Corps? Kinabog si Duterte?! Taray!

Is Alvarez one of the reporters on the Trillanes’ payroll that Inday Sara Duterte alleged?

GMA News “Internal Ombudsman”, GO!!!

But wait! We’re not done yet.

Who is Philippine Star’s Kristine Joy Patag?

According to her own LinkedIn account, Kristine Joy Patag graduated with a BA Communication Arts degree from the University of the Philippines in 2010. Straight out of college, she joined the Office of the President of the Philippines as a Presidential Staff Officer II.

She was promoted to Presidential Staff Officer III in May 2014, and left the Office of the President when her principal, President Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III stepped down in June 2016.

As a presidential staff officer, she said her tasks include:

Drafting messages and correspondence for the signature of the President.
Drafting action letters, transmittal memorandums, and referrals to other units for the signature of the Head of Office.
Researching, verifying, and coordinating with concerned offices accordingly.
Editing and proofreading diplomatic correspondences sent to Heads of States for the signature of the President.

That is, for the first six years of her work life and using the standards of today’s political oppositon, Patag was officially a government propagandist, similar to the Mikael de Lara Co, whom I wrote about in April 2016 when he lamely defended the Aquino Government for the Kidapawan Carnage [TP: BigasHindiBala], or when the Aquino government shot starving farmers in Mindanao.

But I digress.

Going back to topic, where did Patag go right after she left Malacañang?

I smell conflict of interest, like that thing about Karen Davila.

After leaving the Palace in June 2016, Patag joined Businessworld in August 2016.

Businessworld is a sister publication of Pilipino Star Ngayon and the Philippine Star.

With that said, here’s a question:

Judging from her resume, Patag’s career is so far defined by her lengthy stint at the Office of PNoy, so just how much influence does her former Liberal Party allies exert on her today?

More importantly, it is to be noted that Patag and Pedroche essentially belong to the same organization today so...

How would the senior columnist Al Pedroche, who has been a part of Philstar Inc since its inception in the 1980s, react to junior reporter Kristine Patag’s seemingly willful snobbing of his article?

What would I give to have a peek at the Philippine Star’s conference rooms tomorrow! [TP]

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Here's the story of how Aquino-era Health Secretary Janette Garin chronically ignored expert opinion and launched what possibly is the biggest Public Health scandal in the country to date.

On 04 April 2016, the then-President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino and Department of Health secretary Janette Garin launched the National Immunization Program to provide free dengue vaccine to indigent public school students in three regions in the country with the highest dengue incidence: NCR, Central Luzon, and CALABARZON [RTVM].

Over 700,000 4th graders have received Dengvaxia so far.

The dengue vaccine used for this program is Sanofi’s Dengvaxia and the health department planned to vaccinate 1 million 4th graders [WHO].

According to a [Sanofi] press release dated on the same day:

The vaccine’s anticipated impact on dengue burden is expected to stem from its documented ability to prevent 8 out of 10 dengue hospitalizations and up to 93% of severe dengue that includes hemorrhagic dengue fever that can be fatal in vaccinated study participants 9 years and older.

Sanofi and the Aquino Government didn’t tell us the entire story because long-standing fears on product safety were finally confirmed recently when Sanofi, in a 29 November 2017 press release, admitted that Dengvaxia increases the risk for severe dengue on 4th graders with no prior history of the disease [Sanofi].

That is, persons who have never had dengue before and were inoculated with Dengvaxia, if infected with the dengue virus, will suffer from the disease as if it was their second dengue infection.

How Dengue works

Here’s a simple explanation of how Dengue Fever works [Matheus 2005]:

A healthy individual gets infected with dengue. He suffers from dengue fever and somehow recovers from it. However, if he gets infected again, the secondary dengue fever will be worse than the first. Suffice it to say, secondary dengue has higher mortality rates than primary dengue.

There are basically two kinds of dengue fever: regular and severe. As the name suggests, severe dengue fever has higher mortality rates than regular dengue fever.
A person infected for the first time usually suffers from regular dengue fever. If that person survives the first infection, then he must do everything he can to avoid getting infected again, as that would result into severe dengue, which is much more likely to kill him.

Here's a World Health Organization graphic that describes the difference between "regular" dengue (left) and severe dengue (right):

Some severe dengue cases result in organ damage (heart, etc).

Now, what did Dengvaxia do to the 4th graders who have no history of dengue?

Suppose we have a 4th grader who has never been infected with dengue receives Dengvaxia. If that child gets infected with dengue for the first time, that child will suffer from severe dengue instead of just regular dengue.

In short, the child would have been better left without the vaccine, as Dengvaxia increases the dengue mortality rates for recipients who have never been infected with dengue.

Simply put, Dengvaxia is poison for those who have never had dengue… but Aquino and Garin wanted it anyway.

How did this happen?

Concealing Critical Information

The DoH and Sanofi were not totally honest.

First, the vaccine is a lot less effective to those who have never had dengue.

If you have had dengue, the vaccine's efficacy is 81 per cent. However, if you have not been infected with dengue before, this figure is only 38 per cent [ST].

The vaccine’s effectiveness against those who have previously been infected with dengue is undeniable. However, the vaccine is a lot less effective if the recipient is seronegative for dengue, i.e. the recipient has no traces of dengue virus in his or her bloodstream.

Of course, we can argue that having a vaccine that works only 4 out of 10 attempts is better than having no vaccine at all. And this leads us to the second point, which is…

Second and more importantly, health experts have been warning the entire time that Dengvaxia may have considerable adverse effects on seronegative recipients.

Senator Richard Gordon, after consulting health experts, has already warned against Dengvaxia in as early as 2015. In a December 2015 press release, he said:

“…We talked to several health experts and they told us that they had already warned government long before about the possible adverse effect of the new drug on individuals with no prior history of dengue [Senate]”.

Gordon’s warnings were bolstered by no less than the March 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) report just a few months later and just days before Aquino and Garin launched the Mass Vaccination Program.

Ironically, this report appears to have been used as the basis of the Mass Vaccination Program.

WHO already said over and over that the vaccine may do more harm than good to recipients who have never had dengue prior to inoculation (seronegative)… and WHO said it multiple times BEFORE Garin’s DoH launched the mass immunization program.

My gahd, I heyt drahgs!

Issuance of WHO Guidelines

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Dengvaxia on 23 December 2015 but it was put on hold five days later pending the release of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines [GMA].

Despite the lack of WHO guidelines, Garin vouched for Dengvaxia just days after the DFA announcement, in an interview with Karen Davila [YT] in 03 January 2016.

At the 1:45 mark, Davila asked:

Who is the perfect candidate to receive the dengue vaccine? . . . I've never had dengue. Ako ba, should I be vaccinated anytime?

Garin replied:

Yes. It's recommended for those nine to 45 years old,” Garin said.

Oh crap! From where does Garin derive her blind faith on Sanofi and Dengvaxia?!

The Aquino government seems to have changed its mind when the Philippines hosted Dengvaxia’s global launch on 11 February 2016 [CNN], or over a month before WHO’s 17 March 2016 publication of its background paper Dengue Vaccines on [WHO].

The Aquino Administration bought P3.5 billion worth of Dengvaxia in March 2016. Note that all contracts worth in excess of P50 million require the signature of the President.

To give Garin the benefit of the doubt, I presume that Garin used the 17 March 2016 WHO guidelines [WHO] to justify the April 04 launch of the mass vaccination program, as they are the only guidelines available at the time.

The problem: that same WHO document contains so many red flags that Garin willfully ignored.

Let me list these red flags down one by one.

Red Flag 1: Warning to Travelers
Page 5 of the WHO guidelines states, “in travelers unlikely to have already had dengue, vaccination may be substantially less beneficial (and there is a theoretical risk that it may be harmful).”

The WHO document advises AGAINST vaccination of travelers who have never had dengue because it may be harmful. Yes, WHO admits that Dengvaxia may be harmful to those who have never been infected with dengue.

Red Flag 2: Vaccination can do harm
Page 6 of the WHO guidelines states, “Current data suggest substantially lower benefit of vaccination in seronegative individuals 9-45 years of age. There is a theoretical possibility that vaccination could do harm in this population.”

WHO says Dengvaxia is a lot less effective to those who’ve never had dengue, and that it may even be harmful to them.

Red Flag 3: Lack of Contraindications
Page 12 says that according to Dengvaxia’s packaging, the drug should NOT be administered to those with severe allergic reactions, those with immune deficiencies such as HIV or AIDS, and those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

So why was there no contraindication against those who’ve never had dengue?

Red Flag 4: Insufficient number of trial samples
Page 19 states, “The number of severe or hospitalized episodes was too small to undertake meaningful analyses stratifying by other factors.”

Again, this is an admission that there weren’t enough samples.

Red Flag 5: Severe dengue risk if given to seronegative people
Page 24 states, “The vaccine could act as their primary infection, and the subsequent true primary... infection (which would otherwise be typically less severe) could simulate a secondary… infection (which is typically more severe)”

There. Page 24 of the 17 March 2016 WHO document said what Sanofi said just days ago.

There probably are more red flags after page 24 of 67, but I believe that discovering five should have been enough to convince authorities to think twice about Dengvaxia.

WHY DID AQUINO’s GARIN IGNORE THEM?

It’s interesting to note that on 01 April 2016, the Philippine Daily Inquirer published the article “WHO approves PH rollout of dengue vaccine”, even if WHO only essentially said they tolerate the rollout and that they do not necessarily approve of it.

Specifically, WHO-Philippines chief Dr. Gundo Weiler said, “It is the prerogative of a country to license the product [Inq].”

In short, Aquino’s Garin rolled out Dengvaxia in contravention of expert opinion.

WHO reinforces warnings

As if the 17 March 2016 WHO document wasn’t enough, the WHO issued another document a month later that basically reiterated the warnings.

On 14 April 2016, or several days after the Aquino Government launched the mass vaccination program, Peter Smith of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine delivered a report entitled “Dengue Vaccine (CYD-TDV ‘Dengvaxia®’) Clinical Trial Results to the World Health Organization [WHO].

According to the report (parentheses supplied),

“There is a theoretical possibility that vaccination may be ineffective or may even increase risk of hospitalized and severe dengue in those who are seronegative at the time of first vaccination, regardless of age. However, there are few trial data available on older (aged 9 and up) seronegative participants to address this.”

Let’s translate that to plain English:

“There is a chance that Dengvaxia may be useless or even increase risk of severe dengue to recipients aged 9 and up who have never had dengue, but there’s an insufficient number of trial subjects to confirm this.”

And there’s the trial methodology’s fatal flaw because when translated to really, really plain English, the April 2016 WHO report basically says:

Dengvaxia is untested on people aged 9 and older AND have never been infected with dengue.

That is, in as far as those aged 9 and up and seronegative are concerned, the drug is UNTESTED.
Now, here’s the important question:

How many among the 1 million kids aged 9-10 that Aquino and Garin targeted for vaccination with Dengvaxia have been previously infected with dengue?

Dengvaxia recipients can be split into two categories:

Seropositive, or those who have had the dengue virus in their bloodstream
Seronegative, or those who never had the dengue virus in their bloodstream

Seroprevalence, meanwhile, refers to the seropositive proportion of the target population.

The studies mentioned in the previous sections indicate that Dengvaxia is considerably effective for seropositive recipients and I will not contest that. The problem, however, is what Dengvaxia does to seronegative recipients.

A Sin of Intentional Omission

A basic tenet for medical practitioners is the phrase [Harvard], “First, do no harm.” With respect to Dengvaxia, I think it’s clear that Dengvaxia must first be proven to be safe for seronegative recipients aged 9 and above.

Sanofi did not do that, the WHO confirmed that Sanofi did not do that, and the Aquino government ignored that WHO confirmation.

But then, it must be noted that we are talking about Public Health here, so there are times when compromises have to be made for the sake of the entire population.

In that regard, the WHO, after the April 2016 Meeting of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), said:

SAGE recommended countries consider introduction of CYD-TDV only in geographic settings (national or subnational) with high endemicity, as indicated by seroprevalence of approximately 70% or greater in the age group targeted for vaccination or other suitable epidemiologic markers. The vaccine is not recommended when seroprevalence is below 50% [WHO].

Again, in plain English:

“WHO recommends Dengvaxia to places where dengue is prevalent, i.e. where 70% or more of a target age group are seropositive or some other suitable standard. Do not deploy to places where less than 50% are seropositive.”

Let me be categorical about this:

“WHO advises AGAINST mass vaccination programs where the target population is less than 50% seropositive.”

In short, DO NOT mass vaccinate if over half of the target population has never had dengue... but Garin decided to vaccinate anyway.

Seroprevalence in 4th Graders

Remember that the Aquino Government deployed Dengvaxia to 1 million 4th graders aged 9-10.

Did Aquino’s DoH test the 4th graders to measure seroprevalence?
Was there a DoH study showing that over half of the 1 million 4th graders had dengue in the past?
Were all the 1 million 4th graders subjected to an immunoglobulin test to confirm the presence of dengue virus in their bloodstream (seropositivity)?
Did the DoH even attempt to ask each of the parents of these 4th graders if their child has had dengue and if so, what proportion of the 1 million kids had the disease before?
Reactions to dengue infections vary so some of those infected may have been minimally symptomatic, so did the DoH attempt to ask parents if their child previously showed some dengue symptoms and if so, what proportion of the 1 million kids exhibited dengue symptoms in the past?
Was there even a random sampling of the 1 million kids to estimate seroprevalence with a respectable statistical confidence level?

There #DengGate issue would’ve been far less infuriating if the did any of the above. However,

I have asked several public health professionals from these areas and they said no, there were no studies like these. This is something that the Senator Gordon may want to verify with Garin.

The Aquino Government should have undertaken due diligence measures, but they didn’t.

And here’s the bad news: a year and a half into the mass vaccination program, [Sanofi] itself confirmed on 29 November 2017 that Dengvaxia is dangerous for use on seronegative 4th graders.

Putang ina.

Why did Aquino and Garin fail to conduct these studies before launching the mass vaccination program?

Epilogue

Because of Dengvaxia, 4th graders who have never had dengue will immediately face the risk of organ damage at their first natural infection, among other complications.

Simply stated, the #DengGate issue revolves around the deployment of an insufficiently tested and highly dangerous vaccine to 1 million Filipino children, despite the wealth of warnings that predated the mass vaccination’s launch.

However, I think Sec. Ubial, Garin’s successor, may also be liable for this debacle. While some camps may argue that Ubial opposed Dengvaxia, the fact of the matter remains that she continued its deployment after she took over the Health Department in July 2016. That’s also something that must be explored.

With that said, I will agree this is the right time to call for a Senate Investigation.

Specifically, let’s find answers for the questions:

WHY WERE AQUINO AND GARIN ON SUCH A RUSH AND WHY WAS GARIN SO POSITIVE ABOUT DENGVAXIA DESPITE OPPOSITION FROM EXPERT?

I have an answer for that, but this article is already running long so I’ll leave it for the next article, which I will publish on Monday afternoon. [ThinkingPinoy]

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Health Secretary Francisco Duque earlier said Dengvaxia provides a 30-month protective period before risk of severe dengue for recipients with no prior history of dengue kicks in. However, an interview with a mother from Tarlac suggests that such a "protective period" may not be entirely true.

(Featured Image: A photo of the said 12-year-old child while in a hospital ICU inlaid with a photo of a vial of the Dengvaxia)

Update: 04 Dec 2017, 730 AM: MS. Pangalangan said she just remembered that she was actually asked by the school to sign a consent form, although she maintains that nobody explained to her Dengxaxia's limitations and potential side effects.

Yesterday, Facebook user Von Dy posted two photos of a young girl in what appears to be a hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, and part of the accompanying caption reads:

"Kami po ay humihingi ng tulong sa kaso ni Aimy Junnel Tamayo, 12 yrs old at nag-aaral sa San Francisco Elementary School, San Francisco, Tarlac. Siya po ay may dengue case mula po noong Disyembre 2, 2017 (Sabado) at ngayon po ay naka admit sa Jecson Hospital Tarlac, Tarlac City. Si Aimy po ay isa nabigyan ng dengue vaccine (3 shots). Ngayon po ay nasa ICU sya at patuloy ang pag monitor sa kanya."

[TRANSLATION: We are pleading for help for Aimy Junnel Tamayo, 12 years old and studying at San Francisco Elementary School in San Francisco, Tarlac. She contracted dengue since 02 December 2017 (Saturday) at is currently admitted at Jecson Hospital in Tarlac City. Aimy is one of the recipients of the dengue vaccine (3 shots). She currently in the Intensive Care Unite and she’s being continuously monitored.]

I am generally doubtful of claims made by random people on Facebook, so I called one of the phone numbers listed in that post, and I got to speak with a certain Lejani Pangalangan, who claims to be Tamayo’s mother.

Pangalangan said the doctor fears her child may be suffering from dengue, just three months after receiving her third shot of Dengvaxia in August 2017.

[NOTE: Ms. Pangalangan allowed me to verify Tamayo's hospital admission. I searched for a publicly listed contact number for Jecsons Medical Center and dialed it. The hospital answered and they confirmed it.]

November 28th Fever

Pangalangan said the child started to become feverish on November 28th but she was still able to attend a school competition the 29th, although she has already become weak and frail by then.

After the family got home, Aimy’s cousin told Pangalangan that dengue is detectable only after three days, so she brought her daughter to the hospital on December 2nd to get her blood tested.
She said, “Mababa na po yung platelet. Sabi ng doktor, ipa-admit na kasi nakaka-alarma dun sa barangay niyo ay marami nang na-dengue [Her platelet count was already low. The doctor said she should be admitted to the hospital because of the high prevalence of dengue in her barangay].”

Pangalangan said Aimy’s platelet count is falling. It was 61 two days ago, 38 today, and the results of the latest test are still pending.

She said, ”Doon sa lugar namin, kung hindi po ako nagkakamali, 30 na po yung na-dengue. Then, dalawang estudyante po na kaklase po niya ngayon ay nilalagnat, so naalarma po sila (mga guro) [If I’m not mistaken, there have been 30 dengue cases in my village and two and her classmates currently have fever, so the teachers are alarmed at the situation].”

There’s a dengue outbreak in their village right now.

Date of Vaccinations

Pangalangan said her daughter received 3 shots of the dengue vaccine as part of the mass immunization program of Department of Health, and that her daughter has no history of contracting the dengue virus.

Aked if her daughter received Dengvaxia, she said, “Grade 6 po siya ngayon. Na-inject po siya ng ganon noong Grade 4 siya… two years ago [She’s in 6th grade right now. She got her first injection when she was in 4th Grade… two years ago].”

The said program was launched in early 2016, which is only about a year and a half ago.
Asked on the specific date of Aimy’s first dose, she said Aimy’s teacher texted her the specific dates of vaccination. After checking her inbox, she said Aimy received shots on 30 March 2016, 13 October 2016, and 14 August 2017.

Pangalangan noted that in reality, the first dengue vaccine shot may have been administered a few days later: on April 4th, 5th, or 6th.

Aimy was injected with Dengvaxia, French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi’s newly-launched anti-dengue vaccine.

No Consent, No Waiver, No Explanations

She said she wasn’t notified about the vaccination program. She said she wasn’t made to sign anything, and nothing was explained to her by any school official.

“Actually po, noong sinasaksakan sila, hindi po namin alam (We actually didn’t know they got vaccinated until they did),” Pangalangan said.

Pangalangan added, “Nagulat na lang po ako noong umuwi po iyong isang anak ko, sabi niya, ‘Ma, si Ate, nagpa-inject pero kami, hindi.’ (I was shocked when one of my kids came home and said, ‘Mom, my elder sister was vaccinated but we weren’t).”

Pangalangan asked her younger child what was injected, and the child said it was an anti-dengue vaccine.“Natuwa pa po ako, anti-dengue pala, e di maganda siya… Sino ba naman po ang hindi matutuwa e anti-dengue po pala? (I was actually pleasantly surprised because it was anti-dengue, so it’s good for her… Who wouldn’t be glad that she got anti-dengue vaccine?),” Pangalangan said.

She had no idea how the vaccine works because nothing was explained to her. That is, until her elder daughter Aimy was hospitalized a few days ago.

No preliminary screening

Dengvaxia is effective on recipients who have had dengue. However, if injected on persons with no prior history of dengue, the vaccine may worsen the disease at the first natural infection, i.e. through a mosquito bite. Thus, preliminary testing for presence of dengue antibodies in a prospective recipient is key, as doing so would determine if Dengvaxia would be appropriate to administer.

Aimy was never tested prior to the first Dengvaxia dose. Moreover, Pangalangan said there was no preliminary screening done to Aimy or any of her classmates.

She said all of Aimy’s 4th grade batchmates were vaccinated.

“Hindi ko naman po sinisisi ang mga teacher kasi iniisip nila kapakanan ng bata… unang-una po, utos ng DoH (I don’t blame the teachers because they only want what’s best for the kids… in the first place, it was an order from the Deparment of Health),“ Pangalangan added.

Important Note

With Ms. Pangalangan's permission, I published a recording of our entire phone call below:

This entire article was largely based on the initial Facebook post and this phone call interview. Hence, I still need to visit the facility myself to more thoroughly verify the situation.

And that’s what I will do. [ThinkingPinoy]

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The Dengvaxia article that may finally pave the way for my "liquidation". The Dengvaxia article that may finally pave the way for my "liquidation". Here's one from a blogger who can't be bought.

The #DengGate controversy centers on the Aquino Government’s botched anti-dengue mass vaccination program using global pharmaceutical giant Sanofi’s anti-dengue experimental vaccine Dengvaxia®. With P3.5 billion ($76 million) in illegally channeled public funds, the Philippines bought around 1,000,000 three-dose sets for use in a pilot batch of 1 million 9- to 10-year-old 4th Grade children in Central Luzon, CALABARZON, and the National Capital Region.

Under the hastily launched program, over 500,000 of these children received their first dose the 2nd quarter of 2016. The government has so far injected over 700,000 children with the drug until it halted the program right after Sanofi admitted just days ago that the drug worsens dengue symptoms if administered to individuals who have never had dengue.

In an apparent attempt to quell fears, Malacañang spokesperson Harry Roque said“there is no reason to panic”, arguing that “there will be nine out of ten who will be protected” from severe dengue. Another senior palace official, Health Secretary Francisco Duque, said the first Dengvaxia dose “provides a 30-month protection” from the disease.

Roque’s “Nine out of ten”

Assuming the unlikely event that Roque’s “nine out of ten” statistic has factual basis, asking the public not to panic solely on the basis that 90% of the vaccine recipients are protected directly negates Roque’s supposed reputation as a human rights lawyer.

Does the protecting 90% justify endangering the remaining 10%? The government “inoculated” over 700,000 individuals, so the fact that Sanofi and the government endangered over 70,000 is “no reason to panic”? Besides, how sure is Roque that 90% have had dengue before, which is a requirement for the vaccine to work as designed?

Where is the study? When was it published? Where was it published? Or did the government just made that number up to justify the botched mass vaccination program?

To add further insult to injury, Roque, aside from being the presidential spokesman, is also the Presidential Adviser on Human Rights.

Duque’s “30-month protection”

What’s more disturbing, however, is the Department of Health’s claim that Dengvaxia provides “a 30-month protection” before the risk of contracting severe dengue kicks in.

Referring to those who received Dengvaxia but have never had the virus in the past, Duque said in Filipino, “Even if they received their first dose, they shouldn’t panic because the first dose of the vaccine gives protection for 30 months.”
Under Duque’s “30-month protection” theory, all of the recipients under the assailed vaccination program must still be alive by today, because the program was launched only 20 months ago.

Civil society group Volunteers against Crime and Corruption (VACC) claims that at least three kids have died after receiving Dengvaxia as manufacturer Sanofi maintains that there have been no deaths due to the vaccine.

“30-month protection” a myth?

In as early as program’s second week, however, a male recipient was pronounced dead on arrival at the Bataan General Hospital after suffering from cardiac arrest.

Just two weeks after the death, authorities exculpated Dengvaxia by pinning the blame on congenital heart disease. Then-Health Secretary Janette Garin, who was the vaccine’s main government proponent and who headed its regulatory approval, ascertained the cause of death in no more than 14 days.

Authorities said the child died “due to cardiac arrest, pulmonary edema and other underlying causes such as congenital heart disease, gastroenteritis, with moderate dehydration.”

Now, Dengue can trigger cardiac arrest [Vancini-Campanharo 2016]. It’s is linked to pulmonary edema [Lee 2012]. It also has symptoms similar to gastroenteritis [Varatharaj 2010], and it also causes dehydration [US CDC].

Is former Health Sec. Garin absolutely certain that it’s not dengue, or was she, along with the rest of her department, merely trying to cover up the mess?

I have reason to believe that it is so, as Garin has an extensive history of ignoring multiple World Health Organization warnings against Dengvaxia, warnings that were issue way before, right before, and immediately after the launch of her catastrophic mass immunization program.

DoH Sec. Duque versus Reality

If Garin indeed attempted a coverup, does it also mean that Health Sec. Duque’s “30-month protection” theory is just a figment of his imagination?

Just hours ago, News5 reported that 10-year-old Bataan 4th grader Christine Mae de Guzman, one of the vaccine’s first recipients, died from severe dengue before receiving her second dose of Dengvaxia scheduled October this year. Christine had no prior history of the disease: this was her first dengue infection.

Duque’s “30-month protection” theory would have meant that Christine would still be alive by now.

But according to the death certificate, Christine died from severe dengue.

What happened to this Christine seems to confirm the untested risk with Dengvaxia that Sanofi itself cited in a 17 March 2016 document of the World Health Organization. Sanofi said that for those who have never had dengue:

“…The vaccine could act as their primary infection, and the subsequent true… infection (which would otherwise be typically less severe) could simulate a secondary… infection (which is typically more severe)…”

Was Duque referring to some parallel universe that the rest of the planet has yet to discover? If so, then let us hope that we can refund the P3.5 billion we paid Sanofi so we can ship the 700,000 kids to the Bermuda Triangle and hope against all hopes that they will somehow end up there.

But then, I am very big believer of Hanlon’s razor, or the saying, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

So, should we attribute the “30-month protection” theory to malice, or is it merely a product of stupidity?

Please, not another Christine!

Yesterday, I interviewed Lejani Pangalangan, a Tarlac mother who claimed that her daughter, Aimy Junnel Tamayo, contracted dengue.

Aimy never had dengue prior to the first Dengvaxia dose. She received all three doses under the same mass immunization program where the late Christine got hers. Aimy’s last Dengvaxia shot was in August 2017, and the mother claims Aimy contracted dengue three months later on 28 November 2017.

After the phone interview last night, the mother and I agreed to meet this afternoon. I told her that I will visit them in Tarlac so I can interview them personally. The mother was even glad that I’ll come to visit because I promised to help them with the bills after she told me that she even had to borrow money so she could bring Aimy to the hospital.

The mother also said in the interview that the child was vaccinated without parental consent, although she doesn’t blame Aimy’s teachers for it because she believes that the teachers acted only upon orders from the Department of Health.

I wrote a ThinkingPinoy article about that phone interview and it was published last night at 12:12 AM. The article quickly went viral and it has garnered over 16,000 shares as of this article’s writing.

A few hours later at 7:12 AM, the mother Lejani tried to call me but the signal on my phone was poor. I have a morning radio program, “Karambola sa DWIZ”, so I was inside a building at time, preparing for the show. I texted Lejani, asking why she tried to call.

Lejani replied in Filipino, “I just want to correct something I said. I think I was mistaken when I said there was no parental consent. I signed a waiver before the first dose. The teacher found a copy.”

That was odd. Leijani said she discovered about the immunization only after Aimy’s younger sister complained about why she wasn’t given Denvaxia too. If Leijani indeed signed a consent form, how would she totally forget about it?

JUST A FEW HOURS LATER AND SHE’S BACKTRACKING ALREADY!?

I smelled fear

I felt that Leijani was lying about the consent form, but I still gave her the benefit of the doubt. Despite my reservations, I immediately updated the article to reflect this development and I informed her about it about it right away.

A few minutes later, Lejani texted, “Please, sir, I do not want to ruin their reputation! Please delete the article if you don’t mind! They love my daughter a lot!”

I replied, “Yup. They’re safe. I’ll protect them.”

Should there be problems, I was intent on defending Aimy’s teachers, even if it has to be in front of Education Secretary Leonor Briones: I would’ve done so even if no one asked for it.

I have interviewed Sec. Briones just two weeks ago, I have her contact details, and I believe that she is a very fair and just human being who responds well to reason. Teachers are already overworked and underpaid. While they are expected to follow all the rules by the book,

I am a firm believer that they deserve to be shown more compassion than most people.Despite the assurance, the mother repeatedly insisted that I take down the article, but it takes more than a couple of text messages for me to do that. Leijani sent one text after another, with each subsequent message sounding more and more panicky.

Unfortunately, my radio show starts at 8 AM so I couldn’t read or respond to her messages during that time, so I texted, “I’ll speak to you later po, I’m on air right now.”

(The Filipino word “Po” is a form that indicates respect or politeness.)

After the radio show ended, I immediately and repeatedly tried to call her after the radio show but her phone cannot be reached. I started to worry, as there are wide range of things that could have gone wrong with the child. Leijani told me the night before Aimy’s platelet count was low at 38 and may still be falling.

From my best recollection, I think I managed to call her at around 11:30 AM as I was on the way to Tarlac, I confirmed with her that we will meet between 2 and 3 PM as previously agreed upon.

I texted her again at 12:50 PM, asking her if she was alright.

She replied at 1:53 PM with, “I hope you can delete the article.”

Shocked in Tarlac

I arrived at the hospital at exactly 2:19 PM, in line with our agreement.

Right before I entered the lobby, a hospital staffer recognized me and asked for a photo. The hospital staffer said he is one of my social media followers so he was already aware of what Leijani and I agreed upon. He told me that Aimy and Leijani have already been transferred to another hospital.

I was shocked. I told him I needed more details, so he introduced me to another hospital staffer who witnessed the hospital discharge. Note that I will never reveal their identity, for their own protection.

The second staffer told me the following that doctors from the Department of Health – Tarlac arrived at hospital around 9:00 AM. The doctors spoke to Leijani over breakfast at the hospital cafeteria.

He said the doctors paid for all the expenses Leijani has so far incurred and told the hospital that they will facilitate the patient’s discharge for transfer to Jose B. Lingad Hospital in the neighboring province of San Fernando, Pampanga.

Do provincial DoH offices have discretionary funds that can be used to “bail out” patients from private hospitals?

If so, why just Aimy? Some of Aimy’s neighbors also got struck with dengue and are in the same hospital, so why did DoH Tarlac take Amy and no one else?

Dr. “Santos” takes no one else

The hospital staffers said all the hospital employees who witnessed the scene were all surprised.

Concerned about mother and child, a hospital employee even asked Leijani if she will have a place to stay in Pampanga. According to the staffer, one of the DoH doctors said they’ll give Leijani a room.

One of the staffers told me that it was highly irregular and perplexing.

He said there’s a dengue epidemic in Leijani’s village and some of the other dengue victims are admitted in the same hospital. He wondered why DoH-Tarlac took Leijani and Aimy and left everyone else behind.

He said they left at 12 noon in a vehicle with DoH-JBL decals (branding).

One of them told me in Filipino, “You know, one of their teachers also contracted dengue. Her platelet count is less than 10 so she’s on the 5th floor. Would you like me to bring you to her?”

I respectfully declined the offer on humanitarian grounds. The teacher’s platelet count is low so I do not want to subject her to further stress anymore. For all I know, she might start hemorrhaging just by trying to talk.

Asked for the names of the DoH doctors, the staffers said they can’t recall the exact names anymore, but one of them said one of the doctors had a surname of “Santos”.

Shocked, confused, and slightly scared

Something felt really off so I decided that it’s better if I do not stay in that place for too long. If there’s a massive coverup going on, then it’s not improbable that somebody within the hospital premises may be looking for me

I thanked the hospital staffers, quickly exited the building, did a quick 5-minute Facebook live session as proof that I really went there, then immediately left Tarlac.

Tarlac, after all, is the home of former President Benigno Aquino, one of the masterminds of the Dengvaxia Scandal.

I tried to call Leijani again as soon as we got onto the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, but no one was answering. For some really weird reason, Leijani, the Dengvaxia victim’s mother, doesn’t want to talk to me anymore.

I immediately called my friend Sass Rogando Sasot at around 3:35 PM and I told her about what happened. She asked for Leijani’s number and she said she’ll call Leijani herself.

The rest of the this section is based on how Sass recounted the events to me.

Sass dialed Leijani’s number but it was busy.

She dialed it again and it rang. Leijani picked it up.

Sass asked Leijani, “I want to donate, where I can I send my donation?”

Leijani and her friends were trying to solicit financial help for Amy online since last night. Thus, Leijani shouldn’t be surprised if she gets calls from total strangers, in the same way that she wasn’t surprised when I called her last night.

Leijani said, “You can deposit it to a bank account.”

Sass asked, “Where are you right now?”

“In Pampanga,” Leijani replied.

Sass asked,” How did you get there?”

Sass heard somebody talk to Leijani and just moments later, Leijani hung up.

Available data suggests that DoH Tarlac took just Leijani and her daughter Aimy. They left Tarlac for Pampanga at 12 noon and the call took place at around 3:35 PM so Leijani’s relatives, if any, are unlikely to be there that fast.

A "new" Leijani “resurfaces”

Who was coaching Leijani, a Health Department employee?

Leijani suddenly “came back to life” when she texted me again at 7:33 PM and apologized for not informing me about their transfer. She said she was already groggy out of hunger and exhaustion. She said somebody told her about the Facebook live session I did in the hospital in Tarlac.

She admitted that DoH Tarlac offered help and she accepted and that there was no money involved. She said she wasn’t silenced in exchange for money, and all that she wants is a quiet life and what’s best for her daughter.

The whole nine yards.

I can’t take her word for it anymore because I have reason to believe that her texts were sent under duress. No, she’s in probably in no physical danger, but as a mother, I think she feels the necessity to comply with whoever is necessary, for the sake of her daughter.

#DengGate has been raging for almost a week now, but we have yet to hear from a President who’s typically vocal even about the littlest of issues.

If Duterte knew about #DengGate, would he be in Greenbelt yesterday to shop as the parents of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos lose sleep over the Dengvaxia scandal? That’s not Duterte, so somebody may be keeping the issue away from his eyes… and his daily briefings.

I think there’s a coverup going on, from a little bit below the top all the way to a little bit above the bottom. After all, many of them may be complicit to this whole mess, and many of those heads will roll if somebody opens the can of worms.

Remember DoH Tarlac.

The relative silence of government authorities, the mismatching official statements, the disappointingly scant media coverage of what would otherwise be a major national issue… all of these point to a concerted effort to play down #DengGate.

All these, in my opinion, point to a massive coverup.

And who are the suspects?

Read the title, for starters. [ThinkingPinoy].

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One of my reader's sons was a recipient of Dengvaxia under the Department of Health (DoH)'s mass immunization program. A few days ago, the child started exhibiting some symptoms of severe dengue. Her son has no prior history of dengue.

She emailed me, hoping that I can help her letter reach DoH Sec. Duque.

I decided to publish the letter here in my blog, with very minimal edits on punctuation and choice of prepositions.

Her English is far from perfect, but she writes straight from a mother's heart.

Here we go.

#####

December 7, 2017

Secretary Francisco Duque
Department of Health
Manila, Metro Manila

Sir;

I am one of the parents whose children received the dengvaxia vaccine. I am saddened with the news on the side effects of the vaccine. I now fear for the life and well being of my son.

As a single parent with no stable income, I have no capacity to send my children to a private school and public school is the only option. More so, I cannot afford for any hospitalization. I am in such a hand-to-mouth existence that I wasn’t able to even pay/update my Philhealth contributions. So when the government –DOH thru DepEd launched a program of vaccines for dengue, I was happy because I believed that my children can now be safe from dengue, safe from any eventual hospitalization due to the dengue virus (sickness).

I fully trusted the government, that the DOH and all the people in charge of this program have sound judgment and are 100% sure that the vaccine is 100% safe, not harmful and only useful to the Filipino citizens especially to children.

I cannot believe until now that our government can use our children to become guinea pigs. Until this very hour I cannot contain my fear for the life of my child.

On Nov. 14, 2017 my son K**** A**** had fever accompanied with terrible headache, diarrhea and vomiting. I only self medicate since I don’t have money to bring him to the doctor. On the 3rd day he no longer have fever and the diarrhea has stopped so on the fourth day I already sent him to school.

But on the following week that’s November 22,2017 he again had fever. He doesn’t want to move because he had a terrible headache, muscle and joint pains, pain in his nape and in his eyeballs. He also have diarrhea and vomit everytime he eats or drink. Again I only self medicate because of financial constraint. I only give him biogesic, papaya sap and oresol.

On November 25, 2017. he had convulsions and he was already dehydrated. I gave dolan suppository and gave him pocari sweats and buko juice. That’s when I was able to borrow money and finally bring him to a doctor for consultation and did laboratory tests.

The result shows that his platelet is already high but he already has infections in his urine and and his white blood count is also high. He was given co-amoxiclav.

The following day, his fever already subside. And because I have no money I wasn’t able to bring him to the hospital but all the symptoms of dengue manifested in him.

It's been four days since I heard the news about the vaccine and it’s dangers and I couldn’t sleep until now, thinking how dangerous the situation my son faces. And I cannot forgive myself if something bad happens to him. I already have this trauma. And I wanted to know and have him checked through blood test if indeed he just had dengue so I can monitor my child closely. I cannot have peace of mind until the test is done but I cannot afford it on my own.

I have watched Sec Harry Roque's press conference with Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy on Dengvaxia and I am so frustrated, disappointed and I felt betrayed. I cannot believe how the government downplayed the dengue issue.

I cannot believe how Sec. Roque, being the mouthpiece of the president, could make pronouncements that are not factual. His ignorance to the subject ( dengue sickness) is not an excuse for him to make statements that is contrary to the real effect or real condition having a severe dengue. He should not let the public go blind on a real condition with a severe dengue.

On the contrary, he should have at least educated the people especially the parents of recipients of that vaccine so we could assist our children carefully. I have followed posts on FB pages of several doctors for a week now and I learned a lot from them. Their posts are very informative and they explained it in laymans terms, so that any parent could easily understand how the dengue works in the body, how it could affect the other vital organs and how it can endanger the patient.

Doctors like Dr Richard Mata, Dr Willie Ong and others.

I am disappointed at how the government downplayed the issue. the harm, the danger the physical and emotional issues we parents are battling now.

I have come to ask myself: where can we go and ask help? Who would help us if the government is very reluctant. How can we seek justice?

Then it came to my mind: where else would we asked help but to the very agency who caused danger to our children? It is this agency's negligence that the lives our children is now at risk, their safety uncertain.

Therefore I now ask the DoH thru you Sir to please help us in every way. This is the least that this government/Dept (DOH) can do for us. I for myself am asking for blood test for my child so I may know if he just got infected with dengue or not. And I need a written assurance from DOH that the it will shoulder all medical , laboratory fees , hospital bills from the onset of fever…meaning from monitoring to actual confinement to all/any hospital may it be public or private whichever is nearer when time/need arises.

Please stop asking us to go to public hospitals if it is too far from our residence because some of us if not most don’t even have money for transportation. And we have to really consider the distance as it could affect a lot to the well being of the patient and to the guardian as well.

I am also awaiting some measures from the government such as maybe giving insect repellents to the 10% of the recipients in which the DOH spokesperson claimed who has not infected with dengue prior to immunizations. Or maybe the government will again conduct the brgy “smoke something” to eradicate mosquitoes. Or anything that could help these 10% free from dengue . I am sure this measures is not as expensive as the cost of the vaccines itself.

I also understand that this problem is not caused by the present administration but still it is the government who made it happened or bring this great danger to the lives of the children. So please let us for now just simply think And consider the welfare, the lives of the recipients.

Although in my innermost self I wanted all the people behind it, Aquino, Garin and the rest to be jailed but what truly matters now is the life of my son. And the assistance I am now seeking.

I am hoping that you, your office the DOH will hear my plea and act on my request at the soonest possible time.

Thank you so much.

I**** A*****
Parent

[ThinkingPinoy: I withheld her phone number for her own protection. If you wish to contact her, please email TP@thinkingpinoy.net and PLEASE, in times like these, consult a doctor, DO NOT self-medicate.]

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Dear Mr. President,

I did some arm twisting so I can be seated next to you during the bloggers’ Christmas Party held yesterday in Malacañang. I felt the need to do so because I wanted to be sure that you are already aware of the #DengGate scandal, where over 800,000 kids have been injected with a defective vaccine, thanks to corrupt officials in the government and a greedy pharmaceutical company.

You instructed me to write a memo about it and give it to Sec. Bong Go, so here it is. You said I don't have to sign it, but I decided to publish it on my blog too. I stand by what I write, pero salamat pa rin po sa pag-unawa.

I have spoken with dengue experts, government officials, and victims’ families to learn more about what happened. Adding the results of extensive research about this particular issue, here’s a relatively short brief of the nightmare that’s haunting almost a million children and their families today. This is by no means an exhaustive discussion of the problem. Please consult experts on the issue, experts from both sides, so that you can get a better picture of what has happened.

With that said, let's start with the basics.

How dengue basically works

Persons who get sick with the dengue virus for the first time suffer from mild dengue, which is generally not a serious disease. The problem, however, is when the same person gets sick for the second time, because it’s when severe dengue happens.

Severe dengue is a potentially deadly complication due to plasma leaking, fluid accumulation, respiratory distress, severe bleeding, or organ impairment[1].

Hence, a person’s first dengue infection is like a “warning”, sort of like a “free pass”, a message saying, “You should be very careful because it’ll be so much worse, if not fatally worse, the next time.”

Senator Richard Gordon has warned about this in as early as December 2015[2] when he said Sanofi itself admitted risks, but the DoH ignored him.

Anti-Dengue Mass Vaccination Program

In early April 2016, the DoH launched a massive anti-dengue immunization program covering 1 million 4th grade students in Central Luzon, CALABARZON, and NCR[3]. The program used Sanofi’s newly-developed vaccine Dengvaxia which, at the time, was recommended only for individuals have had dengue before and are 9 years or older[4].

At the time, both Sanofi and the World Health Organization have warned against vaccinating those with no history of dengue[5]. This warning stems from the vaccine’s tendency to act as the “first infection”, so that the first “real” infection (through a mosquito bite) will mimic the symptoms of a second infection.
Let me state this more clearly: If a person has never had dengue before and gets bitten by a mosquito for the first time, that person will get mild dengue. However, if that same person who has never had dengue is vaccinated with Dengvaxia AND gets bitten for the first time, he gets severe dengue right away. In short, Dengvaxia dramatically worsens dengue symptoms for those who have never had dengue before[6].

I feel that Sanofi was a bit sneaky with this warning because they called it a “theoretical risk”, as clinical trials on 2- to 14- y/o kids confirmed that Dengvaxia has the exact same effects on those aged 2 to 9. The trial, however, has very few test subjects aged 9 and up, so Sanofi can’t say yet if Dengvaxia does the same to that age group.

Sanofi’s material concealment, DoH’s mathematical manipulation

However, instead of finding additional suitable test subjects (i.e. aged 9 and up with no dengue history), Sanofi marketed the vaccine right away. After all, Sanofi’s trials basically proved that Dengvaxia is not for 9 and below. If they did another trial for those 9 and above and confirmed the same adverse results, then Dengvaxia would’ve gone straight to the trash bin. That is, the $1.78 billion they’ve invested in the past 20 years would’ve gone to waste[7].

And here comes another problem.

DoH wanted to inject 1 million kids with Dengvaxia, even if they are not sure who among them have had dengue before (seropositive) or and those who have not (seronegative).

According to WHO’s April 2016 paper on Dengvaxia, the vaccine may still be used for mass immunizations if at least 70% of target population is seropositive, and that’s what the DoH used to justify its vaccination program[8].
To do this, they cited a 2016 study[9], where it was found out that 90% of 1,000 randomly selected residents of Punta Princesa, Cebu City are seropositive. The DoH extrapolated Cebu City data to say that 90% of 4th graders in NCR, CALABARZON, and Central Luzon are seropositive, which would supposedly fulfill WHO’s guidelines.

This is bad math, to say the least, because the test samples (from Cebu) ARE NOT representative of the target population (from Luzon). And despite this glaring flaw, Malacañan, through Spokesperson Roque[10] and Secretary Duque[11], still uses this justification.

DoH endangered over 830,000 kids

DoH was actually unsure about how many and which among the 1 million kids targeted are seronegative[12]. As I have said before, Dengvaxia worsens dengue symptoms for seronegative recipients, i.e. children who have not had dengue.

I should also note that the same WHO document advises against mass vaccinating populations where less than 50% are seropositive[13]. The problem, however, was that DoH was in a strange rush so they did away with testing children and vaccinated them right away.

DoH Sec. Duque has confirmed that at least 830,000 kids[14] have been vaccinated so far. The vaccine, which was for a time also available from local private vendors, was also privately administered to many Filipinos. DoH doesn’t know which ones of those 830,000 kids have never had dengue before. That is, DoH doesn’t know which ones require monitoring and which ones who don’t.

Mr. President, this is a big mess. A big, deadly mess.

Let’s take care of the 830,000 kids first

Before I discuss how the situation has gone this bad, let me first recommend a few preliminary courses of action so that we can minimize the harm caused to the 830,000 kids by this DoH debacle.

First, de-escalate through information

Simply telling people not to panic will not prevent them from panicking. Instead, you may want to ask for airtime from the major networks so you can address the entire country and explain to them what’s going on and what you are doing or planning to do about it.

You can also ask DepEd to to discuss the issue during PTA meetings. You may also order social workers in affected areas to visit the homes.

Reach out to Dengvaxia victims to reassure them that the government is doing its best to address the situation. Instruct the social workers to educate the families on ways to mitigate the situation. More than lowering mortality rates, this can help calm down panicky parents who are clueless about what’s going on.

Second, create an emergency fund

Please set up an emergency fund that hospitals, whether private or public, can tap into anytime. Set it up in such a way that a hospital can withdraw from it to cover the expenses of any patient who reports a fever and fits the profile of those who were under the botched vaccination program, or shows any proof that they have been vaccinated with Dengvaxia.

This way, parents of Dengvaxia victims, who are typically not well off, will be less likely to think twice about consulting doctors[15], enabling the medical establishment to diagnose dengue cases early, thereby lowering mortality rates.

Third, restore trust in the public health system

Please suspend or terminate all officials who have a lot to do with this mess. This way, we can help quell the public’s doubts on the integrity and general reliability of the public healthcare system.

Now, let’s ask: How did it come this far?

First, FDA changed rules in 2013 to favor Sanofi

One major main point of contention in this vaccine scandal is the uncertainty of Dengvaxia’s effects on seronegative recipients (never had dengue) aged 9 and up. An issue where the WHO said “it is critical to evaluate as soon as possible whether there is any risk to this population[16].”

Phase IV drug trials could have addressed this issue. In Phase IV drug trials, a new drug is sold publicly to 3,000 people per year for three years as doctors closely monitor recipients for adverse effects[17].

That is exactly what Malaysia demanded in April this year before it clears Dengvaxia there[18], and that is exactly what the Philippine failed to do in as far as Dengvaxia.In 2013, then FDA chief Kenneth Hartigan-Go made Phase IV trials optional when he said manufacturers, by themselves, can decide whether to do Phase IV trials or not[19]. Thus, Sanofi was able to market Dengvaxia right after their Phase III trials ended.

I have reason to believe that Hartigan-Go did this to benefit Sanofi. Before joining government, Hartigan-Go was an Executive Director of Zuellig Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Zuellig Pharma, Sanofi’s official local distributors. After leaving government in June 2016, Hartigan-Go headed AIM’s Zuellig School[20].

He is Zuellig through-and-through. Suffice it to say, the Philippines’ de facto Phase IV Dengvaxia trial was done on 830,000 innocent children. Hartigan-Go, regardless of intent, indeed used 830,000 Filipino kids as laboratory rats.

Second, corruption in procurement

The Aquino Government has been in talks with Sanofi in as early as 2014, when PNoy met Sanofi during the Beijing APEC summit[21]. In May 2015, DOH Sec. Garin clandestinely met Sanofi in France and taught the French executives how to entice our Congress to purchase Dengvaxia[22]. Lastly, in early December 2015, Pnoy, Garin, and other cabinet members met with Sanofi on the days surrounding the Paris Accord meetings[23].

Less than a month after the Paris meetings and before 2015 ended, DBM has already released a SARO for P3.5 billion, sourced from the Office of the President’s Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund and transferred to the Philippine Children’s Medical Center[24]. That is, despite the DAP ruling issued earlier in February 2015[25], the Aquino Government used a DAP-like mechanism just 10 months later[26].

PCMC received P3 billion from these funds and used it to buy Dengvaxia. This amount raises suspicion because Sanofi declared only EUR 20 million (P1 billion) in Dengvaxia sales for Q1 2016[27].

Where did the other P2 billion pesos go?

What made this whole thing even more irregular is that all these procurement steps were taken before Dengvaxia was discussed by the Formulary Executive Council. All drugs require FEC approval before the government can procure them, and the Aquino Government procured Dengvaxia without one, as the FEC approval (exemption) was issued after the fact.

Third, coverup within DOH

Evidence suggests that DoH rank and file may be trying to cover up the Dengvaxia mess[28].

I stumbled upon the case of a 12-year-old child in Capas, Tarlac, who contracted severe dengue just three months after receiving the third and final dose of Dengvaxia[29]. She was among the 500,000 fourth graders who actually received the vaccine during launch.

I spoke to the mother over the phone and she told me that she did not sign any consent form, that she found out about her daughters vaccination only after the fact.

The child’s family is very poor. The mother even had to borrow money just to get the child admitted to a hospital in Tarlac City. She was openly soliciting for financial through social media and I told her that I will visit her the next day to speak to her, to hand her a few thousand pesos from my own pocket, and to ask her to ask her to fill out several forms so I can help her get more substantial financial help from charitable GOCCs and public officials.

Upon arriving at the hospital, however, I discovered that DOH-Tarlac has whisked her away to Pampanga two hours prior. I would’ve given DOH the benefit of the doubt, if not for the fact that the hospital staff told me that DOH paid for her outstanding balance. The hospital is privately-owned the child has been in ICU for a couple of days or so. I doubt that DOH has discretionary funds that it can use to bail out patients just like that.

I smell a cover up. If the DOH bailed out that 12-year-old, then why didn’t it bail out the 12-year-old’s neighbors, who were also stricken with dengue and admitted in the same hospital?

With that said, I have serious doubts about the accuracy of reports that Secretary Duque has been receiving.

Fourth, a massive coverup upstairs

The issue could have been addressed sooner and more thoroughly if it weren’t for some government officials apparently trying to cover up the mess. Prior to Sanofi’s November admission[30] that Dengvaxia is bad for those who have never had dengue, the House of Representatives has actually attempted to investigate the issue in as early as October 2016[31].

However, according to some of the resource persons invited in the first hearing, several congressmen, including then party-list Representative Harry Roque, attempted to prevent anti-Dengvaxia resource persons to testify.

On the first day, Roque told Philhealth director Dr. Tony Leachon, a resource person, that the latter cannot be allowed to testify because of the lack of approval from the Philippine College of Physicians, of which Leachon was president. This defies logic because Leachon is an expert on the issue with or without PCP approval.

According to Leachon, Roque and the other congressmen stayed mum as former Health Sec. Janette Garin, who was just an audience member during the hearing, kept on standing up and intimidating the witness. Leachon said Garin went hysterical so the presiding officer was forced to adjourn the first hearing only an hour after it started, no complaints or admonitions against Garin came from Roque.

A few hours prior to the second hearing, Roque approached Leachon and asked him to state his credentials as Roque had it videotaped. When the hearing started, Roque played a spliced version of the footage and made it appear that Leachon, a very accomplished physician, was overconfident. That is, Roque character-assassinated Leachon even before Leachon was able to speak in front of the committee.

Please call Dr. Tony Leachon to confirm these allegations.

I would not have made a big deal out of this if not for the fact that Roque actively defended Sanofi when the Dengue Vaccine Scandal erupted a couple of weeks ago. As a presidential spokesperson, he should have exercised restraint and put into mind that he speaks on the president’s behalf. Surely, the president that I supported from Day One would have better things to say than “Don’t panic.”

It’s also weird that Secretary Duque flip-flopped on his pronouncements and I suspect Roque has a hand in it.

About a week ago, Duque said Aquino should attend the Senate probe on Dengvaxia[32]. Recently, however, Duque seems to have forgotten about Aquino’s liability as he focused solely on Sanofi in his announcements, in line with the Liberal Party’s general PR storyline[33].

My sources said Roque pressured Duque in the same way Roque pressured then Health Sec. Paulyn Ubial during her confirmation hearings. Roque was instrumental in blocking Ubial’s confirmation, mainly because of Ubial’s opposition to the defective Dengvaxia vaccine. Duque, Ubial’s replacement, is also up for confirmation, so my sources said Roque told Duque that the latter will suffer the same fate if the latter doesn’t co-operate.

I have reason to believe that the Office of the President has two primary sources for this Dengvaxia mess: Health Secretary Duque, who is under intense pressure to get confirmed; and Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, who still wields influence in the Lower House and who has historically antagonized those who oppose Dengvaxia.

Mr. President, you said before that you will axe anyone in your cabinet who demonstrates even a whiff of corruption.

Mr. President, behold Harry Roque. He may not be addicted to money, but he's addicted to power.

And I believe that that kind of addiction, Mr. President, is a problem worse than drugs. [ThinkingPinoy]

Sincerely,

Rey Joseph Nieto

Publisher

ThinkingPinoy

[1] World Health Organization. Dengue/Severe Dengue Frequently Asked Questions.

[2] Gordon, R. Gordon Alarmed as Sanofi Admits Dengue Vaccine Poses Risks. Senate Press Release. 01 December 2015.

[3] Radio-Television Malacañang. Ceremonial Distribution of the Tamang Serbisyo sa Kalusugan ng Pamilya (TSeKAP) Medical Equipment Package and Launching of the Dengue Vaccine School-Based Immunization in Zambales. 04 April 2016.

[4] Sage Working Group on Dengue Vaccines and WHO Secretariat. Background Paper on Dengue Vaccines. 17 March 2016. p 26.

[5] Ibid. p 4.

[6] Ibid. p 24.

[7] Berkrot, B. Trouble mounts for Sanofi dengue vaccine over safety concerns. Reuters. 05 December 2017.

[8] Department of Health Integrity Management Committee. Review of the “Report on the Introduction of the Tetravalent Dengue Vaccine in the Department of Health Immunization Program”. IMC Resolution No. 2017-01.

[9] Alera et. Al. Incidence of Dengue Virus Infection in Adults and Children in a Prospective Longitudinal Cohort in the Philippines. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 04 February 2016.

[10] Santos, E. Duterte wants Sanofi held accountable for Dengvaxia mess – Roque. CNN Philippines. 12 December 2017.

[11] Lagrimas, N. Gov’t dengue vaccination put on hold, says DOH Sec. Duque. GMA News. 01 December 2017.

[12] Punay, E. DOJ sets probe of dengue vaccine mess. Philippine Star. 04 December 2017.

[13] Refer to (5).

[14] Santos, J. Duque: Task force to determine how gov't arrived at decision to use Dengvaxia. 09 December 2017.

[15] Nieto, R. #DengGate: A Dengvaxia victim’s mother writes to Health Sec. Duque. ThinkingPinoy. 07 December 2017.

[16] Sage Working Group on Dengue Vaccines and WHO Secretariat. Background Paper on Dengue Vaccines. 17 March 2016. p 6.

[17] US Food and Drug Administration. The Drug Development Process.

[18] Liu, A. Malaysia calls for phase 4 Dengvaxia study before considering full approval. FiercePharma. 11 April 2017.

[19] FDA Circular No. 2013-004. Post Market Surveillance of Authorized Drug Products. Food and Drug Administration Philippines. 22 February 2013.

[20] Tiglao, R. Senate should probe why Sanofi got Zuellig for Dengvaxia sale. The Manila Times. 13 December 2017.

[21] Radio-Television Malacañang. Business Meeting with Sanofi. 9 November 2014.

[22] Grande, G. An evening with Dengvaxia makers in Paris. ABS-CBN News. 07 December 2017.

[23] Tan, A. Health Secretary urges ex-President Aquino, ex-DOH Sec. Garin to explain Dengvaxia procurement. CNN Philippines. 08 December 2017.

[24] Nieto, RJ. ThinkingPinoy interviews Senator Dick Gordon about #DengGate. 04 December 2017.

[25] Supreme Court of the Philippines. Araullo vs Aquino. G.R. No. 209287. 03 February 2015.

[26] Tiglao, R. Was Aquino’s P3.5B purchase of the dengue vaccine the worst case of corruption ever?. Manila Times. 08 December 2017.

[27] Sogonowsky, E. Sanofi's Dengvaxia launch rocked by turmoil in Latin America. FiercePharma. 29 July 2016.

[28] Nieto, R. #DengGate: Botched Tarlac Dengvaxia case hints DoH-led coverup. ThinkingPinoy. 06 December 2017.

[29] Nieto, R. #DengGate: Kid in ICU for dengue only 3 months after 3^rd dose – Tarlac Mom. ThinkingPinoy. 05 December 2017.

[30] Sanofi. Sanofi updates information on dengue vaccine. 29 November 2017.

[31] Suansing, E. HR Res. 480. House of Representatives. 17 October 2016.

[32] Gita, R. Duque urges Aquino, Garin to clear names in Dengvaxia mess. Sunstar Manila. 08 December 2017.

[33] Tamayo, B. Duque hits Sanofi for ‘mental dishonesty’. Manila Times. 12 December 2017.

--------------

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Monkey remittance business preys on unwitting OFWs? Ginamit si Inday? And since when did Atty. Bruce Rivera become the "chief legal advisor for the Duterte presidential family"?

Cryptocurrencies, in simple terms, are digital currencies that are free from control by any single central bank. I will not go into the details of how cryptocurrencies work.

The most popular cryptocurrency right now is Bitcoin. Aside from Bitcoin there are other cryptocurrencies that are gaining wide acceptance. With that said, this article focuses specifically on “Noah Coin” (also called “Noakoin”), a cryptocurrency that, according to its website, will be launched on 12 June 2018.

According to NoahCoin.org:

“The main market for NOAH COIN consists of OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers). It is a promising method for Filipino workers who have gone overseas to earn income for their families to use when sending money back home, and the size of this market has risen to three trillion yen.”

NOTE: JPY 3 trillion is roughly equal to US$26 billion using current exchange rates.

We clearly see that Noah Coin’s main market is the OFW population, and that its primary purpose is for overseas remittance.

A screenshot of NoahCoin.org

According to the same site, Noah Coin is a project of the Philippines-based Noah Foundation, and that part of the earnings from Noah Coin transaction fees will be used to fund Noah Foundation’s charitable work.

Sounds like a good idea! After all, an impoverished country like the Philippines can benefit from another charitable foundation on its shores.

Who’s behind Noah Coin?

Noah Foundation’s Noah Coins is, for the most part, a low-cost remittance service that mainly targets OFWs. And just like any other newly-introduced remittance service, I felt it proper to check the reputation of the people behind it.

Noah Coin’s website (NCW) lists six (6) key people, which it calls the “Noah Foundation Team”:

A screenshot of "Noah Foundation Team".

1. Executive / Lawyer, Bruce Rivera, “Chief legal advisor for the Duterte presidential family of the Philippines. Graduate of the San Beda Graduate School of Law.”

2. Chief Technological Officer David Mezrahid, a “cryptocurrency lecturer at Princeton University. Also active as a private banker in Monaco.”

3. Chief Director Clarke Robertson, a “CTO of a number of companies based in London. Active as a systems architect skilled in infrastructure development and network platform design.”

4. Executive Martin Salvador, “CEO of Ark Technology Co., Ltd. Holds over 20 years of experience in project management spanning a number of different languages.

5. Robbie Antonio, Supervisor of NOAH City, currently the managing Director of Century Properties and CEO of Revolution Precrafted.

6. Bea Rose Santiago for Public Relations, “A Filipina actress who was also chosen as the 2013 Miss International. Active in a number of media both domestically and abroad.”

Okay, hold on one second!

Bruce Rivera

Admitted to the bar in May 2006 [Chan-Robles], Cebu native Rivera is best known for defending, defended businesswoman and alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles [Inq]. With that said and as a political blogger who has been monitoring the Philippine government since 2015, I know for myself that Bruce Rivera is not the chief legal advisor of the “Duterte presidential family”.For one, Atty. Salvador Panelo is still the Presidential Legal Counsel, and I have yet to learn of a single court case where Rivera represented any member of Duterte’s immediate family.

Something’s off. Let’s check another one.

"Chief legal advisor for the Duterte presidential family of the Philippines"

David Mezrahid

A google search using “Mezrahid Princeton university” does not show entries that definitively say that Noah Foundation CEO David Mezrahid indeed works for the illustrious Princeton University. Moreover, a look at the work history in his [LinkedIn] account shows that he’s been based in either Western Europe and HongKong but never in the United States.

Princeton is in New Jersey, United States.

The Others

Century Property’s Robbie Antonio’s [Linkedin] account doesn’t include anything about Noah Foundation, and I sincerely doubt that he’d involve himself in the field of cryptocurrency for the simple reason that he’s a lot better at doing other things.

“Executive” Martin Salvador, which Noah claims to have over 20 years of experience in project management, turns out to have been a K-12 teacher in the United States from 2001 to 2012[Linkedin], so where did those “20 years” come from?

Meanwhile, I cannot seem to find anything about “Chief director” Clarke Robertson, which the site claims to be a CTO (chief technology officer) of several London-based companies.

And lastly, Miss International 2013 Bea Rose Santiago, supposedly Noah’s PR head… do I even have to explain this?

Smells like Fraud

So far, I have shown that Noah Coin’s website appears to be fraudulent. Unfortunately, it appears that some OFWs may have been defrauded as the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo’s warned everyone in March 2017 against both purchasing Noah Coins and engaging with Noah Foundation.

“BSP… has not issued authorization to The Noah Foundation and/or Noah Global Innovation Services Inc. (Noah Global) to engage in the pre-selling of Noah Coins nor recognize that Noah Coin is a national project,” the embassy said.

The embassy added, “Noah Global has no secondary license or authority in selling and trading of bonds, securities and similar instruments.”

Moreover, the embassy said Noah can’t be found in its registered address in the Net Lima building in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

According to Noah’s website, however, the company is located in Unit 3106 Trade and Financial Tower at 32nd St., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

But it doesn't end there.
The Noah website earlier claimed that one of its sponsors is Filipino-Chinese business tycoon Lucio Tan of the LT group. However, in an official press statement issued earlier this year, the Philippine National Bank said it or any of its affiliates are not connected with the Noah Project, Noah Coins, and Noah Foundation.

According to PNB, “Rest assured that PNB and the LT Group of Companies shall not hesitate to take any and all appropriate legal action to address this misrepresentation.”

The page claiming sponsorship from the LT group has since been taken down, although a screenshot of the entire page can be found by clicking here, and one of Noah Coin’s promotional videos claiming a connection with the LT Group’s Philippine Airlines still exists, as show at 13:00 of the following video:

Something’s really off here, especially since I also discovered a similarly-named cryptocurrency, the NOAHcoin. Launched in 2014, NOAHcoin is totally different from the Noah Coin discussed in this article, which has yet to be launched.

In the relatively small world of cryptocurrencies, why would someone use a name that has been used before and the name of a failed cryptocurrency at that?

Yes, all signs, so far, point to fraud.

Non-refundable? No receipts?

I tried to see how Noah Coins work by clicking on the “Buy” button at noahcoin.org. This led me to “noahcoin.co”, the Noah Coin payment portal. After registering and logging in, I clicked on “Order NOAH”, which is presumably that which will allow me to buy some coins.

A popup notification appeared, as shown in the screenshot below:

According to the popup, ”a notification was issued by the Embassy of the Philippines, as it was recently discovered that certain purchasers were carrying out excessive advertisement of NOAH COIN on their websites as agents.”

This is confusing. A currency’s value depends heavily on how widely it is recognized, so advertising is key to its success. Why would Noah dissuade people from talking about the currency?
I closed the popup and I was sent straight to the payment screen. From there, I saw that the lowest amount that I can buy is US$ 8333.33, with a promise that it will be worth US$ 9,333.33, presumably by the time Noah Coins are launched on 12 June 2018. There are two other options: $25,000 and $83,333.

Wow, that's a lot of money required!

Of course, it’s one thing to require an “entry amount” of over $8,333 (Php 420,000) but it’s another thing for people to actually give Noah that money. However, a look at “Issue Invitation Code” page shows that a payment is necessary for a Noah user to earn bonuses for inviting other people into the system.

Specifically, the “Issue Invitation Code” page states:

“After we confirmed your payment, ’Issue Invitation Code’ will be available.”

Adding the fact that Noah discourages “excessive advertisement”, what we see here is a classic sign of a multi-level marketing (pyramiding) scheme, where people are required to pay an amount upfront before they are allowed to “sell” products to others.

In short, the Noah Project is a pyramiding scheme that disguises itself as a remittance service, especially since it also has a “rewards” page that is atypical of labels in cryptocurrency portfolio management platforms.

To make matters worse, the FAQ page explicitly states that Noah DOES NOT issue receipts. Yes, Noah expects people to shell out hundreds of thousands of pesos without proof of payment. The fact that payments can only be made through bitcoins makes the transactions even more untraceable.

Here’s a video recording of what I did in Noahcoin.co:

Noah stole identities?

It appears that this whole thing was started by a Japanese national.

Based on his Facebook post, Izumi Tadashi is the one who started the entire Noah thing: the foundation, the project, and the coins.

Part of the Tadashi’s post states:

Noah coin is doing very well and the project is progressing. I am really looking forward to the exchange in June 2018. Please wait for the official announcement from the Noah foundation about the start time of the third term presale.

Tadashi announced this on 11 December 2016. He posted this one month before Noah was registered at the Securities and Exchange Commission:

Receipt Date: 06 January 2017, a month after Tadashi's post.

At this point, I have reason to believe that Tadashi is the "power behind the throne"... but how about the others? Did the website use the identities of the six people without them knowing? Or are the six actually in on it?

On 02 July 2017, Atty. Rivera announced [FB]:

NOTE: Francis Manalo Santos has already left the group.

Rivera wasn’t clear about what foundation it was. However, it appears to be a certain “Noah Global Innovation Foundation” or “Noah Foundation Japan”, judging from his post on 22 August 2017 [FB].

"Noah"

After a little more digging, I discovered that Rivera actually brought in August 2017 two Noah co-founders – Clarke Robertson and Martin Salvador – to Davao to meet Davao Mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio. With Rivera, Robertson, and Salvador was Japanese National Izumi Tadashi.

L to R: Davao Mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio with Noah Foundation's Clarke Robertson, Martin Salvador, and Izumi Tadashi. Sources from Davao City Hall informed me that Rivera brought these three with him.

To promote his illicit overseas business, it seems that Rivera used Duterte-Carpio without the latter being aware of it. After all, who would think that a "foundation" would be a money remittance service?

I sure won't.

Tadashi and the gang even appeared at the DDS Global Thanksgiving Event held in August 2017 at the Crocodile Park in Davao City, donating P1-million to the Armed Forces. Sources informed me that the event was largely sponsored by Tadashi himself.

The Check

Well, thanks! But at the cost of OFW who may lose hard-earned money to a pyramiding scheme?

Epilogue

What we have here is Noah Coins, a cryptocurrency that offers itself as a cheap way for OFWs to remit money to the Philippines… but all signs point to a pyramiding scheme. It is unclear as to how many have bought Noah coins mainly because Noah’s payment portal does not issue receipts, i.e. it will be difficult to prove who paid what when.

Noah Coins are issued by Izumi Tadashi brainchild Noah Foundation, with confirmed founders being Atty. Bruce Rivera, Clarke Robertson, and Martin Salvador. The Foundation also appears to be the financier behind the foreign trips of Rivera’s group that includes fellow bloggers MJ Quiambao Reyes and Rocky Gonzales.

Noah’s administrators have a penchant for claiming association with big names in Philippine business and politics, presumably to help gain the trust of prospective clients. It has, however, been threatened with legal action after Lucio Tan’s PNB found out, and the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo has already advised OFWs to exercise caution in dealing with the organization.

With these, I have a few recommendations:

1. Financial literacy programs for OFWs and their dependents so they are likely to fall prey to these kinds of scams.

2. Tougher regulations for cryptocurrencies, because cryptocurrencies are largely unregulated today.

3. Tougher enforcement of laws relating to overseas remittance services, especially those that involve unstable or newly-introduced cryptocurrencies.

4. An SEC investigation with the option to pursue civil forfeiture proceedings against Noah’s founders, possibly to help OFW victims, if any.

5. An NBI investigation on everyone involved with the Noah Foundation, and filing of charges if needed.

On a final note, let me state the obvious reality that OFWs are already living very challenging lives, so I hope fellow Filipinos, especially those who masquerade as OFW champions, will not do things that will make their lives even more challenging. [ThinkingPinoy]

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You thought P3.5-B was bad? Well, here's one for P4.8-B!

On 07 December 2017, the World Health Organization Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety published a statement in reference to Sanofi’s Dengvaxia® (CYD-TDV) [WHO], the defective drug that was injected to over 830,000 Filipino 4th graders through an ill-conceived Aquino Government-sponsored mass vaccination program [TP: Mr. President]. According the statement:

In study subjects of (2-16 years of age) without prior dengue infection, data suggest modest efficacy (15%-32%) of vaccine against symptomatic dengue until the second year of follow up. Subsequently, starting during year 3, the risk of hospitalized and severe illness becomes higher than among controls.

Let’s “translate” this into simple English:

Those who have never had dengue and were given Dengvaxia are provided a 15%-32% resistance from severe dengue for two years after getting the first dose. After that, the risk for severe dengue becomes higher compared to those who weren’t vaccinated.

What does this mean?

First, there is virtually no “protective period”, contrary to what local authorities say.

WHO clearly stated that Dengvaxia does not provide immunity from Severe Dengue in any way, shape, or form for those who have never had dengue before (seronegative). Instead, Dengvaxia provides resistance against severe dengue for the first 24 months, a 15-32% resistance which can best be described as “minimal”.
This WHO statement squarely contradicts Health Secretary Duque’s earlier claim that first dose provides a 30-month protective period [FB]. Where did Sec. Duque get his numbers, from Sanofi? I don’t know, but one thing’s clear: Sec. Duque does not completely understand what he’s talking about.

Second, a seronegative recipient is more likely to get severe dengue 24 months after initial dose, compared to seronegative individuals who never received Dengvaxia.

I think I do not need to explain this second point anymore.

Doctors “out of reach”

While there seems to be a general consensus that much of the kids inoculated with Dengvaxia are seropositive, the fact remains that no mass testing was done prior to the mass vaccination program. That is, it’s virtually impossible to pinpoint who among the over 830,000 recipients are seronegative.

Parents of Dengvaxia recipients need to be educated about these things as soon as possible. They should be taught about what can be done for now, what to expect after the 24-month period, and what to do if and when their child contracts Dengvaxia-assisted Severe Dengue.

Consulting a doctor as soon as possible is probably the best way for parents to get some peace of mind. However, the country suffers a shortage of 15,000 doctors, with only 1 doctor per 33,000 Filipinos [CNN].

Moreover, visits to the doctor is out of reach for many, with one EU-funded study showing that each outpatient visit costing Php 378 on the average [Tsilaajav 2009], roughly equivalent to one entire day’s wage for workers in Central Luzon, NCR, Central Visayas, and Calabarzon [PSA], the regions where mass vaccinations took place.

Add the fact that public school children typically come from poor families make medical consultations out of reach for a vast majority of the victims.

But surely, educating the parents of Dengvaxia victims can be done through health centers, right?

We have barangay health centers, right?

Well, not exactly.

Graft and Corruption: 3.5 then 4.8

In line with the graft complaint arising from the Php 3.5 billion mass vaccination program, Department of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre issued yesterday an Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order [DoJ] against the top officials of the Aquino Administration and the contractor Sanofi.

According to Aguirre, these persons may have violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act [RA 3019] for participating in the P3.5 billion Dengvaxia deal, despite alleged “lack of comprehensive study on the effectivity (sic) and risks of the vaccines.”

Yes, the P3.5-billion Dengvaxia Deal seems anomalous in itself, but what make matters worse is that one of the temporary solutions to the Dengvaxia mess – Barangay Health Centers – is mired in an even big controversy… a controversy to the tune of P4.8 billion pesos.

Helping Dengvaxia victims made more difficult

Barangay Health Centeres are probably the most effective tools to educate the public about Dengvaxia, to tell them about what to expect, and to teach them how to prepare for whatever those expectations are. Unfortunately, out of the 42,000 barangays in the country, less than half have such facilities.

In an apparent attempt to address this shortage, the Department of Health in 2015 launched a massive P4.8-billion program to construct 3,200 Barangay Health Stations throughout the country, more commonly known as “School-based Barangay Health Stations”.

I got hold of 27 October 2017 DoH report about this ambitious project. Written by Dr. David Lozada Jr, the document entitled “Procurement of the Construction of BHS Tsekup in 3,200 Public School Sites” chronicles the project developments from the date of the project’s inception. Unless otherwise mentioned, this document serves as the basis for everything stated in this article. The complete report is embedded below:

At first glance, the reasoning behind the program is generally sound: build health centers, which will also double as school clinics, on school grounds to avoid land ownership issues, among other reasons.

The government allocated Php 4.8 billion for the project, with the winning bidder JBros Construction offering to do it for Php 4.45 billion. Awarded in December 2015, JBros was supposed to complete all 3,200 Barangay Health Centers by September 2016.
As of August 2017, however, the contractor managed to complete only 338 Barangay Health Centers, or just a little over 10% of the 3,200 promised, with no signs of it completing the remaining 90% anytime soon.

About a third of the 3,200 – 1,051 – are supposed to be built in Regions 3, NCR, 4A, and 7, or the four regions where mass anti-dengue immunization programs took place. Of this number, the contractor managed to complete only 239. That is, at least 812 barangays from Dengvaxia-affected regions will not have Barangay Health Centers.

Incompetence would be the knee-jerk explanation for this mess.

A deeper look, however, reveals a very different, and more tragic story.

An even bigger SARO

Department of Budget and Management Sec. Butch Abad released the infamous Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) for Dengvaxia worth Php 3.5 billion on 29 December 2015. What many seemed to have overlooked, however, is the release of an even bigger SARO, one for Php 9.4 billion, to fund the Department of Health’s Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP).

This SARO was issued upon the request of Health Sec. Garin:

According to the Php 9.4 billion SARO:

Php 5.36 billion goes to capital outlays for hospitals and health centers,
Php 3.39 billion goes to procuring medical equipment, and
Php 639 million goes to purchasing motor vehicles

I am uncertain as to where the P3.39 billion and P639 million chunks went and I can do little about that given available data. However, I have more than enough information about Php 5.36 billion for hospitals and health centers, where P4.8 billion was allocated for the construction of Barangay Health Centers.

Congress obviously didn’t provide a budget for the construction of Health Centers in 2015, that’s why the Php 9.4 billion SARO had to be issued. Despite this, the Department of Health started the procurement process on 25 June 2015 and it found a “qualified bidder” by 09 September 2015, all these in spite of the lack of funding for the project.

How can the government bid out a massive Php 4.4 billion contract if it doesn’t even have the money for it?

That’s illegal, but why did Garin still choose to do it?

Well, Aquino and Abad already had a plan in as early as 2015: to get money from the funds for Philhealth coverage for senior citizens, as fund that was mandated by the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, a fund that is expressly stated by Law to be spent for that purpose and that purpose alone.

I will explain how Abad and PNoy bastardized Philhealth through this SARO in another article. For now, let’s focus on the health centers because this issue in itself is already ridden with so many irregularities, one ThinkingPinoy article may not even be enough to explain it. Budget Sec. Abad issued the Php 9.4-billion SARO despite full knowledge that it’s illegal per a February 2015 Supreme Court ruling against the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), and I have reason to believe that Abad was intent on violating the law from the very start.

In 2014, President Aquino’s issued a veto message for the 2015 National Budget.

Part of that veto message reads:

With respect, however, to senior citizen beneficiaries, the provisions of R.A. No. 10645 (Expanded Senior Citizens Act), shall be applied, taking into consideration those already covered under the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP)… The additional beneficiaries authorized under these provisions shall be funded through the Unprogrammed Fund. In all instances, the implementing agencies shall ensure that no overlapping of beneficiaries under the NHIP takes place… The DOH and DSWD shall issue the guidelines to further clarify the foregoing conditions and ensure the successful implementation of the expanded NHIP under these provisions [Gazette].

In simpler terms, Aquino said he will determine how much Philhealth needs from the P10.6-billion fund instead of simply giving Philhealth the entire amount, arguing that there may be an “overlapping of beneficiaries”.

Setting up the stage

In short, Aquino set the stage for the manipulation of the P10.6 billion fund, a fund that Aquino later used to illegally fund the health center contract.

ThinkingPinoy acquired a copy of a Philhealth board presentation from a senior Philhealth official whose identity shall be withheld for his or her safety. The presentation may be found here.

According to Philhealth, Php 10.6 billion from sin taxes collected in 2014 was supposed to partially pay for the over P12.15 billion that Philhealth owed various healthcare establishments as of 2015, in accordance with the law, which mandates free Philhealth coverage for all senior citizens [RA 10645].

The law, again, is clear: P10.6 billion goes to Philhealth for senior citizens, period.

And rightly so, because according to a confidential document that ThinkingPinoy obtained from a highly-placed source in Philhealth, the state medical insurance company owed hospitals over Php 15-billion as of 2015, so that the Php 10.6 billion could have reduced those arrears by two-thirds.

Source: Philhealth

But President Aquino thought otherwise.

On 05 August 2015, Health Sec. Garin and Philhealth CEO Alexander Padilla wrote to Budget Sec. Abad, informing the latter that Philhealth can provide coverage to senior citizens without having to touch the P10.6 billion funds. Moreover, Garin and Padilla requested Abad to realign the P10.6 billion towards the construction of Health Centers.

Letter to DBM Sec. Abad from Health Sec. Garin and Philhealth CEO Padilla

We all know that Philhealth has always had financial issues so it’s confusing to see a Philhealth CEO telling DBM that they have enough money.

SIDE NOTE: Alex Padilla is currently one of Senator Leila de Lima's legal counsels.

A day later, Garin sent Abad a letter detailing the proposed breakdown of the prospective SARO.

Isn't it amazing how Garin's "needs" match Philhealth's Php 10.6 billion up to the last cent?

Contract Award

The Php 9.4 billion SARO was issued on 29 December 2015.

December 30 (Rizal Day) and December 31st (last day of the year) were holidays, so Garin had less than 8 work-hours to award the contract. But if there’s a will, there’s a way: Garin managed to award, at lightning speed, a P4.4 billion to JBros Construction, the winning bidder for the school-based health center contract.

SOURCE: Usec. David Lozada's report to the DOH dated 27 October 2017

The contract was signed by Health Sec. Garin and JBros Construction’s Abelardo Balota, with the contract agreement executed a few weeks later on 22 January 2016 (CA No. GOP-C-2015-042), for the amount of Php 4,456,592,239.41.

The required time of completion was 240 calendar days, with Notice to Proceed (NTP) dated 22 January 2016, i.e. all 3,200 health centers must be completed by 28 October 2016.
Irregularities, irregularities, irregularities

At this point, it’s already clear that the funding for the massive health center construction program was illegally obtained. Unfortunately, that isn’t the only thing irregular about this contract.

1: The Cost

The Php 4.45 billion contract is for the construction of 3,200 health centers, so that’s about Php 1.4 million per Health Center. That’s pretty hefty, especially since only 52 of the 3200 health centers are in NCR, and the contractor doesn’t even have to purchase land, as the structures will be built inside schools, i.e. DepEd property.

The contract states each of the 3,200 buildings will be 6 meters by 7 meters, i.e. each has a floor area of 42 square meters. Dividing Php 1392685.07 by 42 sq. m., we get Php 33,159 per sqm. Php 33,159 is about thrice the average cost of non-residential construction, which is Php 10,265 as of 2014.

Moreover, each health center will be built with steel sandwich panels, i.e. two thin layers of steel with foam insulation at the core, similar to buildings made from container vans. That is, the buildings are supposed to be a lot cheaper than concrete buildings, but it isn’t the case.

Each completed health center will not be very different from this container building.

In short, the buildings under this contract appear to be substandard and severely overpriced.

2: A last-minute MoA

Sec. Garin gave the contractor a Notice to Proceed on 22 January 2016, i.e. JBros Construction was supposed to start constructing the 3,200 health centers right away.

However, it’s confusing for me to discover that DoH signed a Memorandum of Agreement with DoH and DILG only on 26 January 2016, or four days after the Notice to Proceed. For example, the Department of Education issued relevant orders to public schools via DepEd Memorandum No. 27 s. 2016 only 17 February 2016, or almost one month after the Notice to Proceed.

The Aquino government was in a rush to allocate the funds even if the project was still -- and is still -- half-baked.

To make matters more complicated, Garin awarded the contract even BEFORE the 3,200 construction sites were validated, as evidenced by the DepEd memo instructing school division superintendents “to conduct validation of schools” to check if “there’s buildable space”.

3: Non-buildable Construction Sites

As it turns out, a lot of the proposed construction sites cannot be used. Among the reasons are [1] unavailable space, [2] space reserved for a future classroom, [3] flood prone area, [4] existing barangay health cente ,[5] construction declined by school principal.

However, among the many reasons cited in the October 2017 report, the funniest would be:

“(School) is not operational due to lahar.”

Yes, some of the schools in the 3,200-strong list do not even exist anymore!

Some of the construction sites are UNDERNEATH lahar.

Yes, the Aquino Government awarded a multi-billion-peso construction contract even if it isn’t even sure if construction can be performed in the first place.

Garin, Abad, and Padilla, were so desperate to get hold of the Php 10.6 billion Philhealth Funds, which would have been inaccessible if they tried to get it in 2016.

4: A very sneaky price increase

Just when we thought that the proposed school-based barangay health centers were already overpriced, the contractor issued a Variation Order (price increase request) for Php 416.5 million, which was approved by no other Health Sec. Garin on 30 June 2016, or the last day of Aquino Administration.

Let me put this particular item into perspective:

The Government supposedly allocated Php 4.8 billion for the contract. But to theoretically provide the best deal for the government, the contract was still bid out. JBros bid Php 4.4 billion, which appears that the government “saved” Php 400 million…but JBros increased the bid to P4.8 billion after contract award… AND GARIN APPROVED IT.

Why did even bother bidding it out if we will max out the budget anyway?

Worse, the Php 416.5 million variation order would have put the total contract price at Php 4.873 billion, which EXCEEDS the approved budget for just Php 4.8 billion by a whopping Php 73 million!

Despite the Variation Order being illegal, Garin still approved it.

5: Extension after extension

The Notice to Proceed was issued in January 2016 but the start date was revised to March 2016 because DoH’s agreement with DILG and DepEd came in late, so that the target completion date was moved to October 2016. The target completion date was further moved to January 2017, then it was further moved to July 2017.

SOURCE: Usec. David Lozada's report to the DOH dated 27 October 2017

What we see here is a very poorly planned project whose contract was rushed to meet the December 2015 deadline for DAP Funds. That is, the Aquino Government didn’t mind the fact that the project will experience massive problems, as long as they can release the Php 10.6 billion from Philhealth.

How corruption happens

The Department of Health under the Duterte Administration is seriously mulling the termination of the contract, though it appears that the contractor is resisting the plan. Why is the contractor intent on continuing despite the myriad logistical, legal, and financial problems hounding the contract?

There’s something fishy going on.

Highly placed government sources told me that contractors typically pay kickbacks shortly after a contract is awarded. That is, contractors pay corrupt officials even before they actually get paid for the contract. That is, they told me that it’s not unlikely that the contractor may have already paid Garin, Abad, and Padilla their respective “shares”. That is, if the Duterte Government terminates the contract, the contractor may not be able to recover the amount it already paid to the officials of the previous administration.

Just a about 300 of the proposed 3,200 health centers have been completed as of August 2017.

So much, exactly, did Garin, Abad, Padilla earn from the health center contract?

Let the NBI check that out.

Missing Health Centers

Graft and corruption is a serious issue in itself, but we can’t ignore an even bigger problem arising from this mess: the non-existent Health Centers.

The Duterte Government has two possible courses of action: [1] let construction continue, i.e. allow the contractor to build overpriced and substandard health centers, or [2] terminate the contract.

What to do? What to do?

I believe that the first option is not viable as that may be tantamount to the current government being complicit with the abuses of the past administration, and this leaves us with second option, which is to terminate the contract.

However, terminating the contract will inevitably lead to lawsuit, and it’s a question on which among the contractor and the Department of Health will be the plaintiff and the defendant.

This prospective court case will most likely drag on for years because [1] the government never settles cases and [2] the courts are widely known to be ridiculously slow in resolving cases, with cases of this magnitude typically dragging on for ten years or more.

SIDE NOTE: If I were to put myself in the contractor’s shoes, I’d simply file a case to get a Temporary Restraining Order, wait for a few years for Duterte to step down, make sure a Liberal Party-aligned president takes over, then ask the new LP-led administration to proceed with the contract.

There is a pressing need for more health centers because of the Dengvaxia scandal, health centers that worried parents can go to for crucial health information.

With this botched P4.8-billion contract, however, we can “look forward” to about 3,000 barangays with no health centers for the next ten years or more, with about a third located in the regions where mass immunizations took place.

But the story doesn’t end there.

NEXT ARTICLE: How Aquino, Abad, Garin and Padilla bastardized Philhealth.[ThinkingPinoy]

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Let's start with a recap of bad news after bad news.

It all started with “#DengGate: Aquino’s Garin ignores WHO warning”, where I explained how the Aquino Government, disregarding warnings from experts, hastily misappropriated Php 3.5 billion in public funds for purchasing untested dengue Vaccines and administering them to over 700,000 Filipino fourth graders, unnecessarily putting their lives in danger.

The Health Department swiftly attempted to allay fears when newly-installed Secretary Francisco Duque said there’s a 30-month protective period starting from the first dose, suggesting that victims still have time to prepare for when the real risk for severe dengue kicks in.

Unfortunately, that 30-month protective period has been debunked in “#DengGate: Kid in ICU for dengue only 3 months after 3rd dose”. Worse, it appears that officials within the Department of Health itself are trying to mount a massive coverup, as shown in “#DengGate: Botched Tarlac Dengvaxia case hints DoH-led coverup”.

Public exasperation over this health debacle can better be described with “#DengGate: A Dengvaxia Victim’s mother writes to Health Sec. Duque”, where a mother of a Dengvaxia victim appealed to the government for the sake of her child. With the “protective period” turning out to be a myth and with hundreds of thousands of parents worried, what should be done?

In “#DengGate: Dear Mr. President, here’s the memo you asked for”, I explained the situation to President Duterte, who appears to be surrounded by health advisers that harbor serious conflicts of interest. In that “memo”, I suggested that de-escalation through information dissemination, i.e. informing parents about what can be done, should be the first thing the current government must do.

But the Health Department’s suggestion – consulting doctors – is too expensive for many of the victims, whose parents earn less than US$10 a day, so we must tap our network of government health centers for information dissemination.

However, in last week’s “#DengGate: Garin’s P4.8-billion botched, overpriced Health Center Project”, I explained how the Aquino Government, through Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, Health Secretary Janette Garin, and PhilHealth CEO Alexander “Alex” Padilla, illegally siphoned off Php 10.6 billion pesos in PhilHealth funds to bankroll a multi-billion-peso massively overpriced health center project that’s just 10% complete almost a year after its oft-extended deadline.
Yes, the previous government even “tinkered” with health centers, leaving almost 1,000 villages in the affected regions without a health center for the next decade or so.

Again, the story started with the Php 3.5-billion illegal purchase of defective vaccines, which evolved in what appears to be a massive government-led coverup. The story further included another Php 4.8-billion corruption scandal involving health centers.

The deeper I dug, the bigger worms I discovered... and here, my friends, are more worms.

Malversation of P10.6 billion in PhilHealth Funds

The Expanded Senior Citizens’ Act of 2010 [RA 9994] provides free medical insurance coverage to senior citizens, defined as Filipinos aged 60 and above, made possible by a combination of the Sin Tax Law [RA 10351] and [RA 10645].

Let me explain that more clearly. After deducting the small share of tobacco farmers, 80% of Sin Taxes (taxes levied on Liquor and Tobacco) go to PhilHealth. Furthermore, RA 10645 requires a part of that 80% to be reserved for the cost of PhilHealth coverage for Filipino seniors.

Php 10.6 billion from sin taxes was supposedly allocated for senior citizens for the year 2015. However, in an August 2015 letter to Department of Budget and Management Secretary Butch Abad, Health Secretary Janette Garin and PhilHealth CEO Alexander Padilla said PhilHealth doesn’t need the money anymore, that PhilHealth can cover all seniors even without the Php 10.6 billion from sin tax.

Garin also sits as PhilHealth’s chairman of the board at the time, by virtue of her being the Secretary of Health.
With this premise, Padilla and Garin asked Abad to realign the Php 10.6 billion towards the Department of Health’s Health Facilities Enhancement Program, with about half of the amount (Php 5.3-billion) earmarked for the botched school-based barangay health center construction project.

Garin and Padilla's letter to Abad.

The 2015 realignment, in itself, is already illegal per a February 2015 Supreme Court decision on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) [SC GR 209287].

But there’s a bigger problem: Padilla and Garin, as agents of Philhealth, let go of the massive Php 10.6-billion subsidy despite the fact that PhilHealth was struggling to pay claims of senior citizen members, and despite the fact that PhilHealth, as a whole, was on the verge of bankruptcy.

PhilHealth reserve funds drying up

In 10 March 2016, PhilHealth board member Eddie Dorotan said the company may go bankrupt by the end of the year as claims payments exceed members’ contributions and income [BicolToday].

PhilHealth President and CEO Alexander Padilla contradicted Dorotan’s statement on the same day, arguing that PhilHealth’s “reserve funds has been growing steadily from about Php 112 billion in 2012 to Php 128 billion in 2015 [CNN].”

ThinkingPinoy, through sources within PhilHealth, obtained copies of PhilHealth board presentations that detailed the true financial position of the government corporation.

Based on these documents, Padilla failed to disclose the amount that PhilHealth pays out, which would have put the reserve amount into perspective. That is, Php 128 billion in reserves appears to be a very large amount, but it’s easily overwhelmed by the exponential growth of claims payments compared to the linear (and plateauing growth of premium collections.

Moreover, while it’s true that PhilHealth’s reserve fund is increasing, much of it is not liquid enough to address immediate financial needs. That is, readily available reserve funds are dwindling and are projected to dwindle further, as PhilHealth posts massive operating losses every year.

According to a [PhilHealth board presentation] delivered in early 2017:

Readily available reserve funds dwindle year after year.

Padilla and Garin, the top two PhilHealth officials at the time, turned a blind eye on this reality.

An impending bankruptcy

In the 11 February 2016 presentation “PhilHealth: Plugging the Holes”, PhilHealth Independent Director Anthony Leachon cited Fund Balance Projections as valuated in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Screenshots of the these projections are show below:

2012 Valuation

2013 Valuation

2014 Valuation

As we can see, all of the three valuations predict that PhilHealth will run out of reserves by mid-2018, as total expenses increase exponentially and projected income increasing linearly (and plateauing).

Simply put, all three projections indicate that Philhealth will be BANKRUPT by mid-2018.

Again, these projections were made in 2012, 2013, and 2014, meaning that they were readily available to Health Secretary and PhilHealth chair Garin and PhilHealth CEO Padilla. With that said, how on earth did these two manage to claim that PhilHealth can operate WITHOUT the Php 10.6 billion subsidy from sin taxes, the same Php 10.6 billion that they gave away to the Health Department?

Sources from within PhilHealth informed me that Garin met with DBM to discuss PhilHealth’s finances WITHOUT any other representative from PhilHealth, may that be someone from the actuarial department, the benefits committee, or the risk management committee.

Garin and Padilla didn’t care about PhilHealth’s survival: it appears that all they wanted to do with PhilHealth is milk it for all its worth. And in this particular case, Garin, Padilla, and Abad had their eyes set on the Php 10.6 billion for PhilHealth’s senior citizen beneficiaries.

Risa Hontiveros and her PhilHealth Ads

As a side note, it’s comical that then PhilHealth director and current Senator Risa Hontiveros had the gall to take advantage of what little money PhilHealth has to advertise for her 2016 senatorial bid, with some of Hontiveros’s Philhealth TV commercials costing Php 400,000 per 30-second spot. If she indeed cared for the poor, she would have had the delicadeza to beg off, but she did not.

PhilHealth spent millions for this ad campaign and Hontiveros was fine with it, despite her full knowledge that PhilHealth is broke.

I think her participation in the ad campaign squarely violates 3(i) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act [RA 3019], which prohibits public officials from:

Directly or indirectly becoming interested, for personal gain... in any transaction or act requiring the approval of a board... of which he is a member, and which exercises discretion in such approval, even if he votes against the same or does not participate in the action of the board...

Given this, Hontiveros’ August 2015 excuse – that she “didn’t ask for it” – won’t fly.

Php 10.6-billion for Seniors, gone

Recall that in the 05 August 2015 letter, Padilla argued that PhilHealth can cover senior citizens even without the Php 10.6-billion subsidy from sin taxes.

Padilla was lying. According to another [PhilHealth board presentation] delivered in early 2017, PhilHealth needed Php 2.1 billion to cover senior citizens in 2014, and another Php 13 billion in 2015, for a total of Php 15 billion as of the end of 2015.

Adding the fact that fund reserve projections of the past three years strongly suggest impending bankruptcy, how could Padilla and Garin conclude that PhilHealth can live without the Php 10.6 billion sin tax subsidy?

Well, it seems that the Aquino Administration planned it from the very start.

In 2014, President Aquino issued a veto message for the 2015 National Budget. Part of the message reads:

“With respect… to senior citizen beneficiaries, the provisions of R.A. No. 10645 (Expanded Senior Citizens Act)… shall be funded through the Unprogrammed Fund [Gazette].”

In short, Aquino didn’t want Congress to hard-code the Php 10.6 billion for PhilHealth and instead insisted that the fund be classified as “unprogrammed”. This makes budget realignments easier to do from a legal standpoint, i.e. the Aquino Government had “plans” for the fund in as early as 2014.

And just to give the reader some perspective:

Janet Napoles’ PDAF Scam involves Php 10-billion in public funds [SunStar]. This one is 600 million pesos more than that.

I have reason to believe that this Php 10.6-billion PhilHealth scam is more than just a simple case of Technical Malversation, as the entire issue appears to been heavily pre-meditated, as evidenced by Aquino’s 2014 veto message.

Weakness then Magic

This is made possible through a weakness of the Sin Tax Law, which allows for the “soft earmarking” for health expenses during national budget deliberations, as opposed to programmed funding or mandatory allocations that would have made realignments harder to perform.

Specifically, Kaiser et Al.’s Sin Tax Reform in the Philippines: Transforming Public Finance, Health, and Governance for More Inclusive Development [Kaiser 2016] states:

The earmarking of Sin Tax Law (STL) revenues is “soft” earmarking, though STL revenues are allocated through the annual budgeting process, and annual allocations are considered simultaneously with the overall budgets of the government agencies concerned.

In short, this legal “weakness” paved the way for budgetary “magic”.

I guess we should stop wondering why Garin and Padilla defied logic as they requested for the realignment: they had to do it no matter what, because Aquino and Abad were very much interested in it all along.

And we all know where half of the illegally realigned Php 10.6-billion went: to the botched, overpriced, and unfinished health center construction project. As for the other half, I still do not know.

But now that I’ve talked about corruption in public healthcare, I might as well take a bird’s eye view of the matter and investigate other corrupt practices in PhilHealth and the Department of Health.

Sin Taxes and the “Richest” Secretary

Politicians have historically abused PDAF (Pork Barrel) Funds for their own benefit, and this was the most popular – and most lucrative – avenue for corruption for a long time. The Supreme Court, however, effectively stopped this practice when it declared PDAF unconstitutional in November 2013 [SC GR 208566], as private citizens filed cases questioning its legality in the aftermath of the Janet Napoles PDAF Scam.

With no PDAF to take advantage of, corrupt politicians had to look elsewhere… and they found sin taxes. But one can’t just steal money straight from sin taxes: there’s an art to it.

As explained in earlier sections, sin taxes are taxes levied on liquor and tobacco products. After tobacco farmers get their small share per statutory provisions, 80% of the remainder goes to PhilHealth while the rest goes to the Department of Health.

Anyone knowledgeable with PhilHealth’s finances will agree that Sin Taxes saved PhilHealth. What many may not be aware of, however, is the magnitude of liquidity that Sin Taxes provided not only to PhilHealth, but the Department of Health as well.

Enacted in 2012, the Philippine Sin Tax Law astronomically increased the Health Budget. DoH, which had an average annual budget of Php 30-billion from 2009-2012, suddenly enjoyed an average annual budget of Php 87-billion from 2013-2016. In 2016, DoH had Php 122.6 billion, or thrice its 2012 budget of Php 42-billion.

Simply put, sin taxes made the Health Secretary the “richest” secretary in the Cabinet.

And where there’s money, there’s corruption.

Worse than you thought

The first thing that probably came to your mind would be the PhilHealth cards that politicians typically give away to their constituents as a form of patronage politics, where would-be voters mistakenly feel the need to support a given politician in order to receive government benefits.

That’s right. That happens. But there’s something far more sinister than that.

In late July 2015, Philhealth issued [Circular No. 018-2015], which basically limits eye doctors to 50 cataract claims per month. This was after Philhealth discovered that doctors have been abusing PhilHealth as they claimed large numbers of bogus cataract surgeries in order to collect benefit claims.

PhilHealth pays Php 16,000 per cataract surgery, an outpatient procedure that lasts only 15 minutes. According to highly-placed sources within PhilHealth, some doctors performed cataract surgeries even on patients with no cataracts, while some charged PhilHealth even without operating on anyone at all.

In early July 2015, for example, 10 doctors claimed Php 500 million in total from PhilHealth [Star], 9 of them being eye doctors. For 2014, PhilHealth paid P2-billion in cataract claims alone [PhilHealth]. That’s about 125,000 cataract procedures!

It would have been great if PhilHealth gets to catch abusive doctors, but the sad reality is that extensive audits, which allow PhilHealth to detect fraud, are done mostly in NCR hospitals, so that provincial hospitals can still get away with it.

Philhealth's Sin Tax Fund as the new PDAF

But the story doesn’t end there: some high-ranking health officials informed me that local politicians conspire with doctors to defraud PhilHealth, and it appears that PhilHealth’s past administration didn’t mind that much. For example, the top conditions and procedures paid for by [PhilHealth] in 2014 are:

Pneumonia: Php 7.6-billion
Hemodialysis: Php 4.6-billion
Caesarian Delivery: Php 7.6-billion
Cataract Removal: Php 2-billion
Maternity Care Package: Php 1.5-billion

Now, add the fact that Philhealth paid Php 78-billion more in 2014 than it did in 2013, a 41% increase. While increases may be attributed to increased coverage, such a drastic increase in such a short span of time suggests that there’s something fishy going on.

According to PhilHealth sources, many doctors and their politician “business partners” have started to either [1] prescribe unnecessary procedures or [2] claim “ghost” procedures, in order to increase their claims. And it also helps that local politicians control local arms of the Department of Health, while others actually own hospitals.

For example, a number of major eye clinics actually have politicians as co-investors.

But some corrupt politicians take it a step further.

In Tarlac Province, for example, Governor Vic Yap in 2015 withheld professional fees of government doctors at the Tarlac Provincial Hospital (TPH) [Inq], an issue that has yet to resolved up to this day. TPH has been losing doctors left and right since then [Inq].

So where did the withheld money go? Take a guess.

Have we seen any investigation conducted by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales that actually yielded something? No, but that’s expected, as Morales appears to be one of the staunchest protectors of the Aquinos [TP: Mamasapano Trojan Horse].

The list of corrupt practices goes on, and on, and on.

Remember that PhilHealth alone receives over P35-billion in sin tax subsidies annually: that's Php 35-billion to play with each year [BW].

PhilHealth’s Woes

To cut the long story short, corruption and fraud almost brought PhilHealth into a downward spiral into bankruptcy. Despite this, Health Sec. Garin and PhilHealth CEO Padilla still insisted that PhilHealth can live without the Php 10.6 billion sin tax subsidy.

What’s so special about that amount?

Here’s one possible explanation:

Funneling Php 10.6-billion to local hospitals means Garin and Padilla get a cut only after the local politicians get theirs. However, if Php 10.6-billion is awarded to just a few entities for a national-level contract, such as the botched Php 4.8 health center project, then they can possibly get a bigger cut.

Good thing Roxas lost 2016. Otherwise, PhilHealth will be gone in just a year or two.

Through the General Appropriations act, the Duterte Administration reportedly extended to PhilHealth a Php 36-billion lifeline to keep the state insurance company alive, and steps are being taken to fix its finances.

But what happens after Duterte's term? Will PhilHealth go back to the way it was?

Lots of corruption happens in PhilHealth and the rest of the public healthcare system, and I think President Duterte has a long way to go in as far as cleaning the PhilHealth and the DoH.

Sin Taxes are intended not just to provide token coverage: it's intended to provide the best quality healthcare to Filipinos that the country can afford. If there's no corruption in Public Healthcare, we can actually afford a lot, lot more.

But as the saying goes, every journey starts with one step, so let the first step be an investigation against Padilla, Garin, Abad, and Aquino, for conspiring to defraud our senior citizens.

Oh, and another against Senator Risa Hontiveros too, for committing graft.

The evidence is already there [ThinkingPinoy].

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A notorious PR operator is back on the move?

I was thinking twice about publishing this article so I asked my Facebook followers if they want it or not.

POLL: LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
May nasulat na akong isang article about how an embattled PR operator appears to be conniving with a blogger. Do you want me to publish it?
Posted by ThinkingPinoy on Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Nine-sixty percent of the over 15,000 respondents voted "Yes", so here we go.

It started with #NasaanAngPangulo

In the February 2017 exposé “#NasaanAngPangulo: Mamasapano, Mar Roxas’ Ambition, and a PR operator”, ThinkingPinoy detailed how the Liberal Party’s Mar Roxas, via his DILG right-hand man and Akbayan party-list stalwart Tomasito “Tom” Villarin, attempted to insulate himself the Mamasapano-SAF 44 scandal’s fallout through the #NasaanAngPangulo black propaganda campaign led by Public Relations (PR) operator Joyce Ramirez.

Garnering over a million hits and over 64,000 shares, the article was a big blow not only against whatever’s left of the Liberal Party’s credibility, but also on the Ramirez’ professional reputation as an online political kingmaker.

Public interest over this issue generally subsided until October 2017, when Senator Grace Poe’s Committee on Public Information and Mass Media called for a hearing about Fake News, a hearing where ThinkingPinoy was a resource speaker.

#NasaanAngPangulo and the Senate Hearing on Fake News

During the hearing, ThinkingPinoy cited the 2015 #NasaanAngPangulo PR campaign, where Ramirez used Twitter influencer fleet “INTERXN” to channel public dismay over the Mamasapano debacle solely on then President Noynoy Aquino, theoretically preventing bad press against Mar Roxas, who was eyeing the 2016 presidency.

Some of PR Asia Worldwide's 2015 tweets re: #NasaanAngPangulo

In the hopes of having a more honest discussion about the proliferation of online political propaganda, ThinkingPinoy recommended that the committee invite Ramirez, along with #LeniLeaks PR operator Pete Silva, the head of an unrelated PR campaign sponsored by the Office of Vice President Leni Robredo.

In retaliation, Ramirez appeared during the evening news to claim that ThinkingPinoy is a “fame whore” and “social climber” and that the allegations made against her during the senate hearing are false.
In response, ThinkingPinoy published “#CocoyGate: Mar Roxas’ ‘special assignments’ for PR Joyce Ramirez”, which provided details on how Ramirez executed the not only the #NasaanAngPangulo campaign, but also her eventual falling out with her Liberal Party-Akbayan clients after Roxas supposedly failed to pay her for her PR services on time.

A Facebook conversation between Ramirez and one of her former INTERXN influencers

Garnering over 30,000 shares, the article effectively decimated whatever’s left of Ramirez’ reputation as the go-to PR person for online political propaganda as her latest client informed me that they have fired her just a couple of days after the article’s publication.

The anatomy of a PR machine

Every PR operator has a fleet of influencers that she can pitch to potential clients.

For traditional PR companies, that means an operator must have print, media, and radio journalists on the payroll, journalists that she can quickly tap for prospective propaganda campaigns. For online PR companies, on the other hand, that means having a fleet of online influencers, such as persons with large social media follower counts.

An example of a traditional PR company mentioned in April 2017’s “On ‘Manufactured Noise’, anti-Duterte media bias makes financial sense”, which tells the story of the workings of a veteran journalist who served as an integral part of the late Bubby Dacer’s PR operations during 1990s. Dacer was eventually murdered in 2000.

Meanwhile, an example of an online PR company is no other than Ramirez’s PR Asia Worldwide Communications Inc., whose tagline is “We don't make noise. We create RELEVANCE.” Initially engaging in solely in Entertainment PR work, the company eventually expanded to potentially more lucrative political PR work, as evidenced by the #NasaanAngPangulo PR campaign.

A screenshot of PR Asia Worldwide's LinkedIn Profile

Politicians initially recognized Ramirez’s PR Asia Worldwide for having control over some of the top local Twitter celebrities, and these fleet of Twitter celebrities, which Ramirez called "INTERXN", was PR Asia Worldwide’s bread and butter.

The Rise of Facebook

Twitter lorded over political conversations for much of the past several years, until Facebook took over in 2016. In as early as January 2016, twice as many Filipinos are on Facebook as there are on Twitter, according to WeAreSocial’s Digital in 2016 Report, the relevant slide of which is shown below:

And everybody knows how Facebook helped catapult then presidential contender Rodrigo Duterte during the 2016 Presidential Elections. More than that, Facebook was able to drown traditional media in as far as shaping the political landscape, as evidenced by the ineffectiveness of anti-Duterte political ads aired during the 2016 campaign season. This has been extensively discussed in the August 2017 article “Mainstream vs Indie: Who’s winning the social media wars?”.

Suffice it to say, Facebook will be the primary barometer of the incoming 2019 National Elections. Hence, online political PR companies have probably realized that they need to have a sizeable Facebook fleet not only to stay relevant but also to command better prices come the next election season, which is in 2019.

And this the challenge for PR Asia Worldwide’s Joyce Ramirez, who has yet to establish one that matches the collective influence of her INTERXN twitter fleet.

Building a Facebook Fleet

Every journey starts with one step, and the first step for any PR operator who wishes to gain power in Facebook would be to access major influencers.

I suspect that one of Ramirez’s first major Facebook influencers is De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras, who repeatedly attempted to set up a reconciliatory meeting between ThinkingPinoy and Ramirez, who promised his former radio show co-hosts of lucrative sponsorship deals through Ramirez, and who brazenly dissuaded ThinkingPinoy from publishing the October 2017 #NasaanAngPangulo follow-up exposé.

ThinkingPinoy initially gave Contreras the benefit of the doubt, until he found out recently that Contreras, a supposedly staunch Duterte supporter and presumably a consultant of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, may have serious integrity issues.
Contreras was staunchly anti-Duterte in as late as 29 April 2016, or barely two weeks before Duterte won the 09 May 2017 elections. Contreras described Duterte as mabaho ang bunganga, pumapatay ng tao, corrupt, a liar, handang… patayin ang kriminal kahit hindi sumailalim (sa due process), no better than a thief, an evil human, a defiler, ulyanin, and “Dudirty”.

Here are some screenshots:

More screenshots can be found by clicking here.

In fairness to Contreras, we are all entitled to change our minds. What perplexes this writer, however, is the speed at which he did it.

In his late April 2016 posts, Contreras even went as far as saying that he’s glad that “not a single one” of his family members was voting for Duterte, and that electing Duterte would make us “the laughing stock of the world”.

Despite this and despite having openly supported Jejomar Binay whom Duterte himself called corrupt, Contreras apparently and suddenly became a staunch Duterte supporter after Duterte won, as he even hosts the PCOO-sponsored web series “Busting Lies” even if he himself was a purveyor of lies right before Duterte earned his ticket to the palace.

These posts were made just two weeks before the elections, and the only thing new that happened between his 29 April 2016 post and his emergence in late May as a Duterte Supporter is Duterte's winning the elections.

Did Contreras believe, in a span of a few weeks, that Duterte has to ceased to be mabaho ang bunganga, pumapatay ng tao, corrupt, a liar, handang… patayin ang kriminal kahit hindi sumailalim (sa due process), no better than a thief, an evil human, a defiler, ulyanin, and “Dudirty” anymore just because Duterte won?

ThinkingPinoy found it hilarious that Contreras had the gall to write in his 26 December 2017 Manila Times column, “From being a platform to celebrate community that is otherwise divided by physical distance, social media has become a toxic domain for political contestations,” when the fact of the matter is that he himself contributed to the toxicity that he’s proselytizing against.

Here’s a fair question:

If a Binay attempts to run again for president in 2022 against a Duterte-anointed candidate (e.g. Inday Sara, Marcos, or Cayetano), who would Contreras support?

Contreras very confidently preaches against fake followers and fake clout despite the fact that he's chummy with Ramirez, whose business as a PR operator involves exactly that. He even promotes Ramirez among his peers.

Evidence suggests that Contreras has serious integrity issues. All things considered, he is a likely first major candidate for Ramirez’s would-be Facebook fleet,

But one ship does not make a fleet, there has to be other ships in it.

A Christmas Gift

Evidence suggests that Ramirez may also have stricken a deal with another social media player with a considerable following on Facebook.

On 21 December 2017, Atty. Bruce Rivera tweeted “Follow me @bruskoday [A]” using his long-time Twitter handle @riverbrook930, which ThinkingPinoy found odd because Rivera already has 14,000 followers on @riverbrook930 and it takes a while to get as much followers on that platform. But what’s more shocking is that Rivera’s new account @bruskoday [A] already has 85,400 followers despite having only 26 tweets, with the first tweet posted at 4:08 PM of 21 December 2017 [A].

Rivera promoting his new @bruskoday account using his old @riverbrook930 account.

Having such a follower count with so few tweets is virtually impossible to achieve, suggesting that Rivera must have inherited this account from someone else. Moreover, a closer look at the “new” twitter account shows that it was created in October 2010, making the account over seven years old.

That is, it appears that Rivera just “inherited” an account with many followers, scrubbed the old tweets, and changed the twitter handle from whatever it was to “@bruskoday”.

@Bruskoday’s original owner

Rivera inherited this account from someone else, but it would be tough to find out who it was because Rivera may have deleted all of @bruskoday’s older tweets.

Rivera, however, failed to delete the entries under the “Likes” tab, which can be found here. Eleven out of the 13 liked tweets [A] were from 2015, pre-dating Rivera’s 26 tweets that were all posted two years later in December 2017.

Here's a screenshot of the @bruskoday's entire "Likes" tab, click the image to zoom.

The “Likes” tab of Rivera’s “new” twitter account. Click to zoom.

A closer look at the tweets reveals a very interesting pattern. More specifically, let’s examine 10 out of the 11 pre-2017 tweets one by one, starting with the oldest post.

1: Queen Latifah Show (@qlshow). “Awh, @GabrielMacht, our hero! See how he's helping #ProjectWonderful: http://bit.ly/qlspwful @Suits_USA”. 19 March 2014. 8:25 pm. Tweet.

Gabriel Macht of the TV series suits was an endorser of Globe Telecom’s #ProjectWonderful program, according to a Globe Telecom press release. This is interesting because Joyce Ramirez was handling Globe’s PR at the time, as Ramirez’s PR Asia Worldwide twitter account used describe itself as “powered by Globe Telecom”.

But one tweet is not enough, so let’s check other liked tweets.

2: Marina Bay Sands (@marinabaysands). “@PRAsiaWorldwide Thanks for being a top tweeter last night guys”. 28 March 2014. 8:22 am.

Again, the @bruskoday liked a tweet from @PRAsiaWorldWide, Joyce Ramirez’s firm.

3: Gabriel Macht (@GabrielMacht). “Condolences to our friends in the Philippines @enjoyGLOBE for the passing of @dalekins - heard he was a huge SUITS fan. RIP”. 10 July 2014. 6:28 pm. Tweet.

This third tweet, again, is by Gabriel Macht for Globe, one of Ramirez’s clients.

4: Publicity Asia (@PRAsiaWorldwide). “Belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY @GabrielMacht via @Suits_USA”. 24 January 2015. Tweet.

Again, the @bruskoday liked a tweet from @PRAsiaWorldWide, Joyce Ramirez’s firm.

Dissecting more liked tweets

Now, it gets more interesting after I saw the following tweet:

5: Manila Bulletin News (@ManilaBulletin). “DIGITAL5 Head @coachot launches #PUSO2019 campaign as well as new online shows for @TV5Manila”. 08 July 2015. 11:27 am. Tweet.

The #PUSO2019 PR campaign is funded by Manny V. Pangilinan’s Group (TV5, Smart, etc), and handled by no other than Joyce Ramirez through her now-defunct company LiveNextPR, a sister company of PR AsiaWorldwide [A].

Bruskoday’s next three liked tweets are also contain the PR campaign hashtag #Puso2019.

6: GMA News Breaking (@GMANewsBreaking). “#PUSO2019: Social media tapped to boost PHL bid to host FIBA World Cup”. 07 July 2015. 8:41 PM. Tweet.

7: Pangilinan, M. (@iamMVP). “Retweet if you think the Philippines should host the FIBA 2019 Basketball World Cup”. 30 July 2015. 8:40 pm. Tweet.

8: Manzano, L (@luckymanzano). “Let's support the Philippines @FIBA bid #PUSO2019 and bring basketball home!”. 06 August 2015. 2:44 pm. Tweet.

For the 9th liked tweet, @bruskoday again liked a tweet from @PRAsiaWorldWide, Joyce Ramirez’s firm.

9: Publicity Asia (@PRAsiaWorldwide). “Check out the opulent 3 bedroom @RafflesMakati Presidential Suite @GabrielMacht stayed at - fit for a Harvey!”. 16 March 2014. 10:13 PM. Tweet.

And @bruskoday liked another one.

10. Publicity Asia (@PRAsiaWorldWide). “@JakeMcDorman You have what it takes to be the NEXT @prattprattpratt | Hang in there pal, you're a born star #LIMITLESS via @CBS”. 30 September 2015. 8:38 pm. Tweet.

SIDE NOTE: PR industry sources indicated that the MVP group has already severed ties with Ramirez sometime after the #Puso2019 campaign.

Ten out of the 13 tweets Rivera liked are part of Joyce Ramirez’s PR campaigns, heavily suggesting that the 85,400-follower @bruskoday twitter account, which apparently came of nowhere, was formerly owned by Ramirez.

That is, evidence suggests that Ramirez gave Rivera one of her high-follower count Twitter accounts, which theoretically boosts Rivera’s relatively weak Twitter presence.

And interestingly, Rivera yesterday shared a PR piece defending Joyce Ramirez as regards the #NasaanAngPangulo issue that ThinkingPinoy mentioned during #CocoyGate Senate Hearing.

A screenshot of Rivera''s profile page, where he shared one of Ramirez's PR pieces.

Signs of an ongoing PR campaign

On 02 January 2017, International Relations scholar Sass Sasot wrote:

1 1/2 years na lang eh 2019 national election na. If you are a political operator, ngayon pa lang i-demolish mo na ang reputation ng makakalaban ng kandidato mo. Kasi, as Duterte's candidacy demonstrated, kung mas malapit sa election time ang demolition job, hindi ito magiging successful. So dapat you do it in advance like what the Yellowtards did to Binay.

Pero wait, bakit parang walang demolition job na nangyayari ngayon laban sa mga kakandidato sa 2019? Alam naman natin kung sino mga re-electionists at mga posibleng tatakbo from LP. Yet ang dini-demolish ngayon ay ang mga bloggers na merong clout sa social media. Bakit ang social media ang sinisira? Kasi, as Duterte's candidacy demonstrated, social media is a powerful antidote laban sa demolition job na gagawin ng kalaban through traditional media.

So kailangan pa bang i-memorize iyan mga political operators?

Putting this writer into a PR operator’s shoes, this post makes quite some sense.While it’s true that the 2019 campaign season is near, the political landscape is so fluid that it’s hard to predict who will file certificates of candidacy, except for Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, who has been campaigning since the PDP-Laban mass oathtaking in Cebu City a few months back.

PR companies are businesses, so it‘s unwise for any online PR operator to attack potential clients at this point. Thus, this is the time to fortify their PR arsenal either by:

Acquiring allies among those with major online followings, or
Destroying major social media players that may get in their way.

The previous sections of this article demonstrate the first tactic. Meanwhile, recent events on Facebook suggest that the second tactic is already in motion.

The Second Tactic

Like what Sasot said, the attacks on what is dubbed as the “Blogger Wars” are mostly directed against ThinkingPinoy and to a great extent, against Sass Rogando Sasot, who’s heavily identified with the former. Along with Mocha Uson, the three enjoy the highest engagement rates among political bloggers in the Philippines today.

Suffice it to say, Uson, Sasot and ThinkingPinoy – commonly called the “Big 3” – with their respective massive engagement figures, are in prime positions to greatly shape the outcome of the upcoming national elections.

Uson, the biggest voice online in the 2015-2016 campaign season, has already definitively shown resistance to temptation by siding with Duterte, despite the fact that the latter’s biggest opponents had access to massive financial war chests. Moreover, Uson already has over five million followers, so that bringing her down will be too expensive, too risky, or downright impossible at the moment.

Mocha is too big and too entrenched to topple. Thus, any given PR operator’s logical “Plan B” would be to discredit the other two: ThinkingPinoy and Sasot.

Creating a Power Vacuum

While some simplistically view this phenomenon as a simple battle of fragile egos, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that those who most vehemently attack ThinkingPinoy and Sasot seem to have suddenly and entirely forgotten to criticize politicians.

The two publish exposé after exposé about criminality, incompetence, and government corruption, even those happening within some factions of the Duterte Government itself, with some of their material used as resources for NBI and Senate Investigations. Meanwhile, erstwhile online political commentators have apparently forgotten to do the same as they focus all their energies at bringing the two down.

This makes perfect sense from a PR standpoint, as destroying the two will create a power vacuum that, to a limited extent, similar to the one created right after then presidential frontrunner Binay’s fall from grace during the past administration.

If and when ThinkingPinoy and Sasot lose their respective voices, then it becomes a free-for-all battle for influence that’s akin to mid-2015, when all social media entities pretty much enjoyed a level playing field as they jostle for a larger piece of the “influence pie”.

There are two possible outcomes in a post-“Big 3” scenario where only Uson survives.

First, the ensuing power vacuum will be filled and dominated by a few other players.

If the replacements have strong links with a PR operator such as Joyce Ramirez, then it's a win for the PR operator. If not, then either [1] "operate" against the new replacement until an influencer-ally takes the spot or [2] settle for the new status quo if the new replacement cannot rival the engagement figures of traditional media outlets, because the PR operator already has access to traditional media outlets to begin with.

Second, the ensuing power vacuum left by the two will occupied evenly by the same “attacking players”, or even none of them.

This is also a very interesting scenario because this will dilute Facebook’s ability to shape the 2019 elections itself. With no major player that can rival traditional media companies, then the Philippines is back to a pre-2016 elections scenario where campaigns are dictated by who the major networks, major broadsheets, and major radio stations choose support.

An interesting 2018

ThinkingPinoy still has his well-founded doubts on whether these attacks will be effective, as the attackers generally do not exercise the same kind of rigor in the materials they publish, aside from the fact that many of these attackers possess very recently uncovered political baggage that may not fade from public consciousness anytime soon.

Nevertheless, ThinkingPinoy admits uncertainty as to whether he or Sasot will survive this nonstop onslaught. Regardless, the political observer in him is delighted to witness these events first-hand.

ThinkingPinoy will continue to write articles of national significance as long as he can.

However, should this brouhaha eventually spell the end of ThinkingPinoy’s relatively short-lived political blogging career, he sincerely wishes to thank all his followers for being with him in this very enjoyable ride. Maybe it's time to "retire"?

Whichever way the wind will blow, having the rare opportunity to reach out to millions over a span of two years isn't bad at all.

Many people do not get that chance, so even if ThinkingPinoy loses what he has right now, he remains forever grateful that he had it for a little while. [ThinkingPinoy]

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Leaked emails and other documents show how Aquino, Garin and Hartigan-Go magnificently orchestrated the approval of the untested Dengvaxia vaccine... and how they broke more than a few laws in the process.

But before that, here's a recap of recent developments.

Recent Developments

In a press briefing held earlier today, [Presidential Spokesperson] Harry Roque said, “Finally, good news to the 830,000 parents whose children were given the Dengvaxia vaccine. The UP-PGH… reported that… out of 14 remains examined by UP-PGH, 13 of them were found to be totally unrelated to the vaccine. This means that only one case maybe causally associated with the vaccine.”

“…iyan po ay mabuting balita doon sa 830,000 na mga nanay-tatay na naaabala’t natatakot na baka may banta sa buhay ng kanilang mga anak,” Roque added.

[TRANSLATION: That’s good news for the 830,000 parents who are troubled and worried that their lives of their kids are at risk.]

Roque misinterpreted the UP-PGH report.

Verifying Roque’s claims

ThinkingPinoy spoke via phone with Department of Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo, who heads the Dengue Task Force technical committee that asked the University of the Philippines - Philippine General Hospital to create the Expert Panel on Dengvaxia.

Doming said, “Parang hindi pa niya nakita yung report. Ni-report ng expert panel na at least tatlo ay siguradong dengue, tapos may six na kailangang pag-aral pa para maging certain kung ano yung cause of death, kung connected siya [sa Dengvaxia].”

[TRANSLATION: It seems like he hasn’t seen the report. The expert panel reported that at least three are certainly dengue cases, while we still need to further investigate six cases to ascertain the causes of death, if they’re related to Dengvaxia.]

“Baka si Harry Roque, hindi niya naintindihan yung report. Actually, hindi pa niya nakikita ang report. Ang nakakita pa lang ng full report, sigurado ako, ako pa lang at si Sec. Duque,” Domingo added.

[TRANSLATION: Maybe Sec. Roque didn’t understand the report. Actually, he hasn’t seen the report. I’m certain that only Health Sec. Duque and I have seen the report so far.]

“Ang sinasabi nga natin, sigurado nang may na-dengvaxia at namatay siya ng dengue kaya kailangan silang bantayan at alagaan, yun yung [essence] ng report,” Domingo said.

Domingo corrected Roque’s interpretation of the PGH report.

Domingo said, ”Ang conclusion namin doon sa report, kailangang mag-ingat kasi may namamatay ng Dengue, hindi naman ganoon kadami pero mayroon. At saka, yung anim na nabakuhanan, may sakit sila so hindi dapat nag-mass immunization program nang hindi pa nacheckup isa-isa ang mga bata.”

[TRANSLATION: We concluded in the report that we need to be cautious because there are deaths from dengue [even after inoculation with Dengvaxia]. It’s not that many, but there still are. Moreover, six of the children may have had pre-existing conditions so there should not have been a mass immunization program without screening each of the kids.]

“Yung anim na namatay, parang may pre-existing conditions so hindi dapat nag-mass immunization na tusok nang tusok. Mali talaga, hindi talaga dapat siya ginawa,” Domingo added.

[TRANSLATION: Six of the kids may have pre-existing conditions so they shouldn’t just inject one after another. It’s wrong, it should not have been done.]

Domingo said, “Dengvaxia should not have been used in a mass immunization program without screening each and every child prior to injection kasi mukhang may association with pre-existing conditions.”

[TRANSLATION: Dengvaxia should not have been used in a mass immunization program without screening each and every child prior to injection because there appears to be an association with pre-existing conditions.]

In another text conversation, Usec. Domingo said, ”DOH also feels justified that the Dengvaxia mass vaccination was stopped. Several children with pre-existing illnesses died within 30 days of vaccination, which means Dengvaxia is not safe for a mass immunization program where children are not thoroughly screened one by one.”

Roque takes a swipe at PAO

Coincidentally or not, both the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) and the UP-PGH expert panel are conducting investigations on the same number of alleged Dengvaxia victims, so that Roque’s February 3rd announcement may have led to some confusion as it was interpreted by some people as an assessment of the 14 cases being handled by PAO.

Further exacerbating the confusion was Roque’s statement that, given his awareness of PAO’s efforts, can easily be interpreted as a swipe against PAO.

In yesterday’s press briefing, Roque said, “Kung maalala niyo po, ang DoH po ang nagtatalaga at humihingi sa UP-PGH na sila na ang mag-aral para magkaroon ng objective na pag-aaral kung ano talaga ang naging epekto ng Dengvaxia.”

[TRANSLATION: If you can recall, the DoH requested the UP-PGH to investigate (the Dengvaxia Scandal) so there can be an objective study of the actual effects of Dengvaxia.] PAO swiftly reacted to Roque’s announcement.

In a statement, PAO said, “Noong nagdeklara ang UP PGH na may 14 cases sila, nakaka LIMANG (5 batang namatay na naturukan ng Dengvaxia) Forensic Examination pa lamang ang PAO FORENSIC TEAM. Nitong Thursday (Pebrero 1, 2018) lang naisagawa ng team ang pang #14 at #15, patunay na walang basehan at pinanggalingan ang sinasabi na ang 14 cases nila ay galing sa PAO. (sic) [PAO]”

[TRANSLATION: When UP-PGH declared their 14 cases, only 5 kids have been under PAO’s Forensic Examination. It was only this Thursday (01 Feb 2018) that the team performed autopsy #14 and #15, proof that their claims – that the 14 cases are from PAO – are baseless.]
Health undersecretary Domingo confirmed PAO’s claims.

Domingo said, “Magkaiba yon, kasi yung 14 ng PGH, sourced ito since 2016 so hindi naman siguro lahat na ýan e yung na-autopsy ng PAO.”

[TRANSLATION: They’re different because the PGH’s 14 were sourced since 2016 so I don’t think they have all been autopsied by PAO.]

One of the several Dengvaxia cases being handled by PAO.

Asked if PAO and UP-PGH indeed have different list of Dengvaxia victims, Doming said,”Oo. Siguro magkamukha yung listahan ng 29 cases, pero yung 14 cases doon sa expert panel report, hindi siguro yun yung 14 cases ng PAO na kanilang na-exhume. Kasi yung kanilang na-autopsy, bago pa lang.”

[TRANSLATION: Yes. The list of 29 cases may be the same, but the 14 in the expert panel report are probably not the same as the 14 exhumed by PAO because they are fairly newly-discovered.]

But the misinformation doesn’t stop with Roque, because we also have former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral doing her part.

The heavily conflicted Sec. Cabral

“We urge the Department of Justice to order the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) to stop performing autopsies on these children and leave the matter of determining the cause of death [of the children who received the Dengvaxia vaccine for free] to competent forensic pathologists,” Doctors for Public Welfare (DPW), which is led by former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral, said in a statement on Saturday [GulfNews].

Cabral, like Roque, clearly took a swipe at the Public Attorney’s Office, which was mandated by the Deparment of Justice to provide legal assistance to the families of Dengvaxia victims.

DPW, through Cabral, said, ““It makes no sense for any more families to be subjected to the torture of having a loved one exhumed and cut up only to find out that no useful information was derived from the cruel act.”

“In fact, the deaths of 13 of them were totally unrelated to the [Dengvaxia] vaccine,” the DPW said.

Health undersecretary Domingo has clarified this issue in the previous section, i.e. the UP-PGH expert panel never said that 13 of the 14 cases handled by UP-PGH are unrelated to Dengvaxia.

Where did Cabral base this information from, especially since she’s not even part of the UP-PGH panel to begin with?

Cabral and DPW’s uncanny enthusiasm to defend Dengvaxia is disconcerting, to say the least.

According to sources within the PAO, it was Cabral who convinced DOH officials to continue the Dengvaxia program after Aquino stepped down.

But then, it appears that it actually is in Cabral’s personal interest to defend Dengvaxia, because she is a Trustee of the [Zuellig Foundation] [A].

Former Health Sec. Cabral is Zuellig Foundation Trustee. Zuellig Pharma is Dengvaxia's exclusive distributor in the Philippines.

Zuellig Foundation’s parent company, Zuellig Pharma, is the exclusive distributor of Sanofi’s Dengvaxia in the Philippines. In fact, the anomalous P3-billion purchase order for Dengvaxia was addressed not to Sanofi Philippines, but to Zuellig Pharma.

Sec. Cabral, the flag-bearer of Doctors for Public Welfare, is part of the “Sanofi-Zuellig Family”.

Now that can explain her enthusiasm. She fights not for this country, but for her personal interests.

When Politics mixes with Public Health

Since the Dengvaxia Scandal erupted in November 2017, there have been several calls by so-called experts to depoliticize the problem, as they claim Mixing that public health should be the paramount concern, and the legal issues as, somewhat, a secondary priority.

But therein lies the fundamental problem: it is the politicization of public health that got the country into this mess.

ThinkingPinoy agrees that the Health Department should take a more aggressive stance in addressing the Public Health issue arisingfrom the Dengvaxia Scandal. Going after erring officials, however, is just as important.
Putting corrupt officials who were instrumental in creating this mess is the best way to restore the general population’s trust in Philippine Public Healthcare, trust that was lost after the previous administration decided to roll out an insufficiently tested drug en masse.

With that said, however, ThinkingPinoy believes that establishing the causal link between Dengvaxia and the deaths should best be entrusted to medical professional who have the requisite knowledge, experience, and integrity.

The politics part of the issue, however, is well within ThinkingPinoy’s domain, and that’s what shall be discussed next.

A Quick Recap

The question on whether there was undue haste in the government’s procurement of Dengvaxia need not be asked. At this point, it is now question of how hasty the procurement process was, who exactly did what in the railroaded procurement process, and whether their actions are merely coincidences or whether there was a deliberate effort to violate the law to favor Sanofi and/or its affiliates.

In a statement last month, [Senator Richard Gordon] said, ”Napakabilis talaga ng proseso, parang minadali nila. Hindi nasunod yung usual na process ng pag-peprepare for implementation of a new vaccination program. Nakita na natin sa hearing nung December last year na after every meetings abroad between Sanofi executives and President (Benigno) Aquino or Secretary (Janette Loreto-) Garin, magkakaroon ng bagong development sa procurement process at lalo itong bumibilis.”

[TRANSLATION: The process was really fast, as if they rushed it. The process for the implementation of new vaccination programs wasn’t followed. We saw in the December hearing last year that each time Sanofi executives and President (Benigno) Aquino or Secretary (Janette Loreto-)Garin meet, there came a new development in the procurement process and it further accelerates.”]

Most of what has been revealed so far are a few testimonies from Senate Hearing resource persons but there’s little in the way of actual direct documentary evidence showing the Health Department’s hand in railroading the procurement process… and that’s what we’ll help provide right now.

An FDA official who can't stomach the corruption in the Public Healthcare System contacted ThinkingPinoy to provide him with copies of internal documents showing several officials from the FDA and DOH actively moving to railroad the approval of Sanofi-Pasteur’s Dengvaxia.

Let’s go.

March 2014: Sanofi “consults” FDA

On 11 March 2014, Sanofi Regulatory Affairs Manager Jervin Papelleras sent a letter addressed to then FDA director Kenneth Hartigan-Go and FDA Center for Drug Regulation and Research (CDRR) head Lourdes Santiago. It was a cover letter for the minutes of the meeting between FDA and Sanofi held on 03 March 2014.

The document, along with the attachments, is embedded below:

The letter in itself doesn’t look like it’s anything out of the ordinary. What’s troubling, however, are the attachments. According to the minutes attached to this letter, Sanofi in 2014 was discussing with FDA its “registration strategy in 2015, following the last meeting with FDA in 2012”.

Why is Sanofi consulting the FDA about its “registration strategy” when all the information about product registration is readily available in the [FDA website]? Sanofi is a gigantic pharmaceutical firm, so why would it even need to personally coordinate its registration with FDA officials when they must already be very familiar with the process?

ThinkingPinoy consulted a senior Health Department official about this and she said, “Meron pang registration strategy? E wala naman dapat strategy e isa lang naman dapat ang paraan ng pagre-register. Pag tiningnan mo yung FDA website, yung how to register a product, I’m sure walang meeting-meeting (involved). Dapat nga, walang private meetings required yung buong registration process.”

[TRANSLATION: There’s a registration strategy? There should be no strategy because there’s only one way to register. If you look at the FDA website, on ‘how to register a product’, I’m sure there are no meetings involved. There should have been no private meetings involved in the entire registration process.]

The “Minutes of the Meeting”

Sanofi’s highly irregular consultation with FDA took place at a time when Dengvaxia’s Phase III Trials in the Philippines was still ongoing, as shown in the screenshot taken from the embedded document in the previous section:

That is, FDA was actively helping Sanofi register a product that, at that time, has completed only its Phase II trials. That is, FDA was helping Sanofi register Dengvaxia even if Dengvaxia was still, by all intents and purposes, an EXPERIMENTAL drug.

This is wrong. The FDA is a regulatory body that approves or rejects registration applications, it should not be in the business of coordinating the marketing efforts of pharmaceutical companies, especially those involving untested products!

Scrolling further down the attachment, ThinkingPinoy stumbled upon a clue, as shown below:

The image above is a screenshot of the Sanofi’s proposed Dengvaxia registration timeline as submitted to FDA. The first column refers to the stage of registration while the last column shows the pertinent laws and regulations that Sanofi should comply with.

Hartigan-Go’s FDA Circular 2013-004

ThinkingPinoy takes great interest in one of the cited regulations, which is FDA Circular 2013-004.

In December 2017, ThinkingPinoy questioned the credibility of FDA head Kenneth Hartigan-Go when it was found out that Hartigan-Go’s career is too closely intertwined with Zuellig, whose pharmaceutical division is the exclusive distributor of Sanofi Dengvaxia in the Philippines.

Hartigan-Go was the head of the Zuellig Foundation prior to joining the Aquino Administration in 2010 and after he left in 2016, he headed the Asian Institute of Management’s Zuellig Graduate School [AIM].

(Note that former Health Sec. Esperanza Cabral, who leads the group “Doctors for Public Welfare” that has been making PR rounds in the media lately, is a trustee of the Zuellig Foundation that Hartigan-Go used to manage.)

In that critique, ThinkingPinoy wrote:

“…through Hartigan-Go's FDA Circular No. 2013-004, Phase IV trials for new vaccines were made optional, so that new drugs can basically enter the market right after Phase III… Hartigan-Go's FDA circular immensely benefitted Sanofi Pasteur Inc, whose defective anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia just finished Phase III trials in late 2014, so that a Phase IV trial would have delayed mass market sales to 2017.”

And voila! FDA Circular 2013-004 is indeed in Sanofi’s “Registration Strategy”.

Again, why is FDA going out of its way to actively assist Sanofi in legalizing Dengvaxia?

FDA’s director is a Sanofi beneficiary, for one.

FDA Circular 2013-004 greatly benefitted Sanofi as it accelerated the latter’s marketing efforts. By making Phase IV trials optional, Hartigan-Go allowed Sanofi to mass-market Dengvaxia three years earlier than it would have.

Hartigan-Go’s circular made the controversial “Registration Strategy” possible. And it appears that Hartigan-Go wasn’t content with just that: he helped Sanofi all throughout the registration process, and more.

We shall go back to Hartigan-Go a little later. Let's talk about the bigger fish first.

Garin and Sanofi in May 2015: A Coincidence?

At this point, the reader may already have an inkling that the FDA is “in on it”, but the FDA, by itself, cannot orchestrate this entire hullabaloo: it must have the imprimatur from upstairs.

According to Philippine diplomatic records, Garin was in various official engagements in France in May 2015, including a dinner in Paris on May 14, 2015 between Garin and Guillaume Leroy, Vice President of Sanofi-Pasteur’s Dengue Vaccine Program [ABS].

Garin would probably deny that there’s anything fishy that went on, but a leaked email will say otherwise, as shown below:

On 18 May 2015, just four days after the Garin-Sanofi meeting, FDA deputy director-general Lourdes Santiago emailed other FDA officials about “Sanofi’s Rolling Submission of Dengue Vaccine”.

Santiago wrote, “Kumpleto na ba? Any submission recently? Meeting with Sec. Garin later to inquire about the progress.”

FDA and DOH’s collective enthusiasm over Dengvaxia would have been acceptable if there was a massive dengue epidemic in the country. According to sources from the Deparment of Health, while there are seasonal dengue fever outbreaks, there has never been a dengue outbreak of epidemic proportions in recent history.

Another email provides more clues. This email shown in the image belowis an 11 May 2015 invitation for FDA officials to attend a World Health Organization conference in Switzerland about Sanofi’s Dengvaxia, at the time still called CYD-TDV.

Healthcare industry veterans that Thinkingpinoy consulted said that given modern telecommunications, these trips are just junkets that pharmaceutical companies give to industry decision-makers to curry their favor.

Oooohhh....SWITZERLAND!!!

PNoy and Sanofi in December 2015: Another Coincidence?

On 02 December 2015, the [Official Gazette] reported that officials of Sanofi Pasteur met with President Aquino in Hotel Scribe in Paris. With Aquino were Health Secretary Janette Garin, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo and Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya. A photo of their meeting is shown below.

Aquino, Garin, Purisima, Abaya and Co. meet Sanofi execs in France on 02 December 2015

A courtesy call is just a more formal term for a quick “Hello!”, but it seems that more than just a courtesy call happened, as evidenced by the email shown below:

On the same day, Sec. Garin asked FDA deputy director Santiago, “When will the CPR for dengue vaccine be probably released?”

CPR is the Certificate of Product Registration, a document issued by the FDA that serves as the license for a product which, in this case, is Sanofi’s Dengvaxia.

Santiago replied, “We are trying the (sic) have the final assessment report done by the second week of December po.”

“Ok. Please keep me posted. TY,” Garin replied.

Did Garin ask (and obviously, pressure) FDA about Dengvaxia just because she felt like it?

Of course not, as shown in the email below:

On 18 December 2015, or about two weeks after the previous email, Garin asked FDA, “When can the Dengue vaccine be approved?”

Garin didn’t ask the FDA if it will approve Dengvaxia or not: she asked when FDA shall approve it!

Changing the Rules to benefit Sanofi?

A month later, another leaked email from former FDA head and then Health undersecretary Kenneth Hartigan-Go (yes, the same guy who made Phase IV trials optional) reveals very disturbing reality: that the Aquino-era DoH really intended to bend the laws to benefit Sanofi.

After getting its hastily-issued FDA Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) in December 2015, Dengvaxia’s fate was transferred into the hands of the Formulary Executive Committee (FEC). In simple terms, a CPR makes a new product legal to sell, but it requires an additional FEC clearance to allow the government to buy it.

That is, an FEC clearance is required for the Aquino Government to buy P3 billion worth of dengue vaccines from Sanofi. Without FEC or an FEC exemption, that would not be even in the least bit legally possible.

In a 27 January 2016 email shown above , Usec. Hartigan-Go told key regulatory agency officials, “If a protocol needs to made, and technically and ethically reviewed, I think you should all focus and fast-track this work, otherwise we all get into trouble or create preventable problems.”

Why did Hartigan-Go say this?

Dengvaxia was a newly-registered drug at the time and it has not even completed Phase III trials, let alone Phase IV trials, by the time it was handed over to the FEC approval.

FEC regulations require a Post-marketing Surveillance Report (PMS), which would have existed had there been a Phase IV trial for Dengvaxia. But as the reader may recall, Hartigan-Go himself made Phase IV trials optional in 2013, while he was still FDA chief.

Dengvaxia, at that point, was in limbo: how can the FEC clear Dengvaxia when it is not compliant with existing rules?

Here’s where Usec. Hartigan-Go’s message becomes relevant, as he explicitly told regulators that the Aquino Government was willing to change the rules – or even create new regulations (protocols) – to ensure that the government can purchase Dengvaxia.

Again, and this bears repeating: there had been no Dengue Epidemics in the recent past.

In the same email, Hartigan-Go even gave a heads up to regulators as he informed them of possible questions from President Aquino.

What we have seen here is not just simple negligence, but one magnificently orchestrated crime that involves the top officials of the Aquino Administration.

ThinkingPinoy's Takeaways

ThinkingPinoy agrees with Senator JV Ejercito in that we need a more sober discussion of the #DengGate Scandal.

However, that is easier said than done given Sanofi's massive PR operations, including the efforts of former Health Sec. and "Doctors for Public Welfare" head Esperanza Cabral, a trustee of Zuellig Foundation.

Zuellig Pharma is the exclusive distributor of Dengvaxia in the Philippines.

Some camps dismiss PAO's announcements as mere histrionics, but as the legal counsels of marginalized Dengvaxia victims, it is their job to advocate for their clients, in the same way that Cabral et Al advocate for their Big Pharma benefactors.

The Pharmaceutical Lobby has very deep pockets. It's more than probably armed with a war chest bigger than the National Government's. And just like any creature, it will do everything it can - including emptying that massive war chest - to survive.

The problem, however, is that Big Businesses are borne not out of altruism, but for the amoral end of profit.

Sanofi is not immoral: it is amoral. Without the government giving it considerable incentive to align with Public Interest, it will not do so.

Hence, what we need is a government response that definitively displays Political Will to force Sanofi into submission, something that our government, so far, has failed to demonstrate. Needless to say, the current government should go after the corrupt officials that were instrumental in the creation of this Public Health debacle.

PAO, despite its flaws, is doing its best to advocate for the victims. Without PAO, this issue would have already been covered up, just like most of the corrupt acts of government officials in the not too distant past.

With that said, I wish all other government agencies involved in this mess will show the same kind of tenacity that PAO has been showing since the Dengvaxia Scandal began.

Filipino first, dear friends... and neither Sanofi nor Zuellig are Filipinos.

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ThinkingPinoy was informed that he may be meeting with President Duterte really soon, and he shall tell him everything he wrote here.

Note that ThinkingPinoy is a one-man team so he does not have proofreaders. He apologizes for any typographical errors because he's already too tired to proofread the article at this time.

PAO and Anjielika Pestilos

On 26 January 2018 press conference, Public Attorney’s Office Forensics Laboratory chief Erwin Erfe released the official forensic and histopathological report for the case of Anjielika Pestilos, who died on 06 December 2017[1]. Pathologists from the Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center performed the histopathology[2].

The Public Attorney’s Office commissioned three forensic teams for this report: (1) a Clinical Team of 3 specialist doctors, (2) a Medico-legal team of 3 doctors, and (3) a Pathology Team of 2 Pathologists[3].

According to the medical report, “Anjielica sustained hemorrhages in the lungs, heart, liver, and stomach. The hemorrhage in the lungs was extensive – involving both right and left lungs and all the lung lobes… Anjielika’s liver, spleen, and both kidneys are enlarged.”

“Anjilieka exhibited Viscerotropic-like disease similar to the Viscerotropic Disease associated with the Yellow Fever vaccine. Dengvaxia®, a vaccine based on they yellow fever vaccine and contains live attenuated yellow fever virus, most likely caused the Viscerotopic-like Disease.”

Erfe said, “the underlying cause is viscerotropic-like disease secondary to Dengvaxia® vaccination… Dengvaxia® is a live virus, a combination of the yellow fever virus and dengue virus.”

Viscerotropic disease (VTD) is an acute multiple organ system dysfunction that occurs following vaccination. The severity of VTD ranges from relatively mild multisystem disease to severe multiple organ system failure and death[4].

Yellow Fever Vaccine-associated Multiple Organ-System Failure

CYD-TDV, marketed under the brand name Dengvaxia®, is a dengue vaccine in a yellow fever 17D backbone developed by Sanofi Pasteur[5], meaning Dengvaxia® is combination of the yellow fever virus and the dengue virus, albeit in a weakened form.

Viscerotropic Disease, or in plain terms multiple organ failure, has been associated as a side effect of the yellow fever vaccine[6]. In particular, no other than Stamaril®, Sanofi Pasteur’s own yellow fever vaccine, lists viscerotropic disease as one of its side effects.

According to the MIMS pharmaceutical database[7]:

General Disorders and Administration Site Conditions: Cases of viscerotropic disease (known as YEL-AVD and formerly described as "Febrile Multiple Organ-System Failure"), some of which resulted in death, have been reported following yellow fever vaccination... The viscerotropic disease may manifest as fever, fatigue, myalgia, headache and hypotension progressing to metabolic acidosis, muscle and liver cytolysis, lymphocytopenia and thrombocytopenia, renal and respiratory failure.

Note that thrombocytopenia refers to low blood platelet count[8]: platelets are more formally called thrombocytes while the suffix “-penia” means deficiency[9]. Myalgia, on the hand, refers to muscle pain[10].

Simply put, yellow fever vaccine – including Sanofi Pasteur’s yellow fever vaccine Stamaril® – is known to have viscerotropic disease, a.k.a multiple organ-system failure, as a side effect.

More formally, this side effect is called Yellow Fever Vaccine-Associated Viscerotropic Disease, or YEL-AVD[11].

For example, a 2007 Yellow Fever mass immunization program of 42,000 Peruvians resulted in a number viscerotropism cases, four of whom died as result[12].

How Dengvaxia® is made

Dengvaxia® is a live, attenuated vaccine, so it contains a version of the living dengue virus that has been weakened so that it does not cause serious disease in people with healthy immune systems. Because live, attenuated vaccines are the closest thing to a natural infection, they are good teachers for the immune system[13].

Aside from being “live (alive) and attenuated (severely weakened)”, Dengvaxia® has also been described as a “chimeric” vaccine, as it is a combination of two viruses. Viruses have two basic parts: a nucleic acid core and a casing[14]. In Dengvaxia®’s case, the core is RNA from the Dengue virus, while the casing is from the yellow fever virus[15]. Thus, Dengvaxia® has a commonality with Sanofi Pasteur’s Stamaril®: the yellow fever virus casing; suggesting that Dengvaxia® and Stamaril® may share some common side effects.

On 10 December 2015, Sanofi-Pasteur’s scientists themselves admitted a theoretical risk viscerotrophism among Dengvaxia® Vaccinees. More specifically, Sanofi-Pasteur, led by Bruno Guy of its Research and Development Department, said[16]:

“…The potential risks after vaccination of sensitization to severe dengue infection and of acute viscerotropic disease and neurotropic disease, which are very rare serious adverse events after vaccination with the yellow fever virus (YFV)-17D vaccine…”

Let ThinkingPinoy break this down for the reader.

Sanofi admits “potential” side effects in 2015

In that peer-reviewed journal article from Vaccine, Sanofi-Pasteur admitted that Dengvaxia® may have side effects that include, but are not necessarily limited to:

First, “sensitization to severe dengue infection” is, in simple terms, the worsening of the symptoms of a disease that a drug is supposed to alleviate or even eliminate[17], something that has been extensively discussed in the ThinkingPinoy article “#DengGate: Mr. President, here’s the memo you asked for”[18].

Second, “acute viscerotropic disease” or multiple organ-system failure, which is the main contention of this article.

Third, “acute neurotropic disease”, in the case of some yellow fever vaccine recipients, manifest as meningoencephalitis, Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) or acute disseminated encephalomyelitis[19].

Meningoencephalitis is the inflammation and/or bleeding of the brain and/or its surroundings[20]; Guillain–Barré syndrome is when a person’s immune system attacks a part of the nervous system[21]; and encephalomyelitis as inflammation of the brain and the spinal cord that damages the protective covering of nerve fibers[22].
This bears repeating: in as early as 10 December 2015 and by Sanofi’s own admission, Dengvaxia® has the theoretical possibility of causing the following side effects. Adding the fact that it was published in a widely-read scientific journal means that the risks must have been publicly known.

With that said, the operative term here is still “theoretical” as opposed to “confirmed”. Moreover, the Philippine Food and Drug Administration regulators can claim that they may have not seen Sanofi’s 10 December 2015 journal article yet when they issued Dengvaxia®’s Certificate of Product Registration in 22 December 2015[23], i.e. there wasn’t enough time because the two dates are just calendar 12 days apart.

But here’s the problem: FDA knew it all along.

DoH, Sanofi and a coverup?

ThinkingPinoy obtained a copy of Dengvaxia®’s Certificate of Product Registration (CPR), along with the Sanofi Dengvaxia®’s filled-out “Initial Marketing Authorization Application Form”. The Marketing Authorization form is required for the issuance of CPR, which is basically Dengvaxia®’s Philippine license to sell.

Dengvaxia's Certificate of Product Registration issued by the FDA

A cursory look at Sanofi’s CPR shows that it was classified as Prescription Drug (Rx), which is already a red flag. Why would then Health Secretary Janette Garin and her co-conspirators use an EXPERIMENTAL prescription drug in a Mass Vaccination Program?

FDA classified by Sanofi as Rx

But why, exactly, was FDA compelled to classify Dengvaxia® as a prescription drug?

A look at Sanofi’s application, embedded below, reveals several soul-crushing reasons.

According to Sanofi’s own submission,by Sanofi’s own admission:

“Four important identified risks have been established for [Dengvaxia®]: allergic/anaphylactic reaction, viscerotropism and neurotropism, increase in severity of dengue disease from the start of vaccination and waning protection against dengue disease over time.”

Aside from the two known side effects of Sanofi’s yellow fever vaccine Stamaril® that were identified earlier (i.e. viscerotropism and neurotropism) and were cited as a potential side effect of Dengvaxia® ®, Sanofi also admitted TO THE FDA that Dengvaxia’s list of potential side effects may include (1) anaphylactic reactions, which may cause sudden death due to respiratory failure and/or sudden decreases in blood pressure[24]; (2) increase in severity of Dengue Disease, which the public has already been informed about recently[25]; and (3) waning protection from Dengue over time.

Despite the FDA having full knowledge of Dengvaxia®’s potential side effects, it is alarming to discover that Dengvaxia®’s Full Prescribing Information[26], includes only “serious allergic reaction”, i.e. anaphylaxis, among the list of side effects listed in the Marketing Application.

This bears repeating: the FDA-approved label for Dengvaxia® does not state the risk of viscerotropism, neurotropism, waning effectiveness, and enhanced dengue symptoms.

In short, FDA deliberately helped Sanofi – to the detriment of the Filipino People – by not letting our citizens know that Dengvaxia® may cause multiple organ failure, severe nerve damage, enhanced dengue symptoms, and decreasing protection from dengue over time.

But why would they do that?

Stamaril® vs Dengvaxia®

As shown in the previoussection , the anti-Dengue vaccine Dengvaxia® shares a few common possible side effects with its anti-Yellow Fever “sister-vaccine” Stamaril®, the most controversial of which is viscerotropism, which is multiple organ-system failure.

Unlike Dengvaxia®, however, multiple organ-system failure is included in Stamaril®’s product label. This may sound puzzling because both vaccines are from Sanofi Pasteur. Given this, why would Sanofi be reluctant to do the same for Dengvaxia®?

The obvious answer would be that any salesman does his best to downplay the disadvantages of whatever he sells. By not mentioning possible multiple organ-system failure, it would be a lot easier to sell Dengvaxia®.

But a closer look shows a darker picture.
While Stamaril® is confirmed to cause rare instances of multiple organ-system failure at a rate of about 0.4 per 100,000 doses, one dose of the vaccine provides life-long protective immunity[27] against Yellow Fever.

On the other hand, the frequency of multiple organ-system failure for Dengvaxia® recipients, while probably low, is still unknown. Moreover, Sanofi itself admitted that Dengvaxia®, unlike its sister-vaccine Stamaril®, provides DECREASING protection over time, i.e. it provides TEMPORARY and NOT LIFE-LONG protection. Add the fact that instead of providing protection from dengue, it actually WORSENS dengue symptoms to those who have never been infected with Dengue before vaccination.

For purposes of illustration, let’s simplify the scenarios:

1 - STAMARIL®: Suppose you were offered the vaccine Stamaril® that has a 0.0004% chance[28] of destroying your internal organs but will most likely give you lifetime protection from yellow fever, a disease that has a 15% chance of destroying your internal organs, would you accept the offer?

You most probably would, because the advantages obviously outweigh the disadvantages.

2- DENGVAXIA®: Suppose you were offered the vaccine Dengvaxia® that has a small but still unknown chance of destroying your internal organs, a vaccine that work only 60% of the time[29], and will provide you only temporary protection from dengue fever with a chance of worsening dengue symptoms if and when you get infected, will you accept the offer?

You most probably will decline the offer, because the tradeoffs are just too much.

But it gets even worse.

In Probability Theory, the Law of Large Numbers dictates that a low-probability event happens given a sufficient of trials. Modestly assuming a 0.0004 percent chance of multiple organ-system failure PER DOSE of Dengvaxia®, 3 million doses administered would translate to approximately 12 cases.

Note, however, that the quoted probability is just based on passive surveillance of recipients of the yellow fever vaccine, so that real-world figures for the dengue vaccine -- which are unconfirmed because the drug up to now is still experimental -- may be higher.

Grossly Uninformed Consent

It would have been understandable if the parents were fully informed about the risks, but they weren’t. After all, which parent in his or her right mind answer “yes” to the following question:

“Here’s an experimental drug that TEMPORARILY protects your child from Dengue but it works only 60% of the time and it may also destroy your child’s internal organs?”

But of course, the Department of Health didn’t ask that. Instead, they injected hundreds of thousands of Filipino kids without telling their parents…

There’s around a 40% chance that the vaccine will not work at all,
That the vaccine may backfire as it worsens dengue symptoms for kids who’ve never had dengue
That the vaccine may destroy their kids’ internal organs, including their nerves, and,
That in the off-chance that the vaccine works, the protection is merely temporary, as opposed to many other more familiar vaccines that provide life-long protection.

Worse, they did not inform some of the parents at all, such case of the child from Tarlac that ThinkingPinoy investigated [30] in December 2017, a case that no less than the Deparment of Health tried to cover up[31].

And it doesn’t help that Department of Health Secretary Janette Garin actively promoted Dengvaxia® as if she’s part of Sanofi’s marketing department.

In an interview interview[32] that took place barely two weeks after FDA approved Dengvaxia®, Garin said, “[Dengvaxia®] is recommended to those 9 to 45 years old”, failing to mention any serious side effect.

I have reason to suspect that Garin and her accomplices in the government did all these for personal gain, as evidenced by leaked emails[33] that demonstrate the Health Department’s uncanny enthusiasm to get the vaccine approved, purchased, and mass-deployed in record time.

Dengvaxia®: The New Vioxx®?

By the looks of, the Dengvaxia® saga appears to be following a storyline similar to Merck’s blockbuster painkiller Vioxx®.

According to a New York Times[34] report:

“[In 2000, Merck] consider(ed) whether to develop a study to directly test a disturbing possibility: that Vioxx®… might pose a heart risk. Two months earlier, results from a clinical trial conducted for other reasons had suggested such concerns…But the executives rejected pursuing a study focused on Vioxx's cardiovascular risks.”

Vioxx® was eventually pulled out in 2004 after the FDA itself confirmed the heart risk, with Merck agreeing to pay $950 million in fines[35], aside from other possible claims arising from invididual personal injury lawsuits.

Now, let’s compare that to Dengvaxia®’s situation.

Just like Vioxx®, Dengvaxia® has a potential side effects (multiple organ-system failure, nerve damage, severe dengue, etc) that warrants a larger confirmatory study, some of which have manifested when Sanofi tested kids aged up to 9 years old[36].

Instead of conducting the study, Sanofi simply told regulators that it’s ok to use Dengvaxia® for those over 9 years old and at the same time told them that there’s an off chance that such catastrophic side effects may occur.

A year after the mass immunization’s launch, Sanofi finally confirms one of the side effects: that it enhances dengue symptoms among seronegatives[37].

Sanofi’s admission indeed hurt their drug’s sales, but there’s still some hope because the press release only affects seronegative recipients. Sanofi can still tap the seropositive market, i.e. those who have had a previous dengue infection, with an added bonus: Sanofi can develop and sell test kits that tests for seropositivity, providing Sanofi with an additional revenue opportunity.

Should Sanofi be fined several years later for concealing information and cheating the system, they would’ve already had earned billions from Dengvaxia®, and they can use those billions to pay fines and other personal injury claims, similar to what Merck did with Vioxx®.

But here’s the problem: the Public Attorney’s Office appears to be foiling that plan.

#StandWithPAO?

But here’s Sanofi’s monumental problem: Dr. Erwin Erfe, Atty. Persida V. Rueda-Acosta, and their colleagues at the Public Attorney’s Office PAO are starting to confirm what DoH and Sanofi deliberately concealed since 2015... that Dengvaxia may cause viscerotropism, or multiple organ-system failure.

Erfe’s 26 January 2018 announcement on the official forensic and histopathological report for the case of Anjielika Pestilos, where he mentioned the term “viscerotropic-like disease”, is a nightmare not only for Sanofi Pasteur and its billion-dollar Dengue vaccine program, but also to all the Health Department officials involved in this grand scheme of deception.

To make matters worse for Sanofi, preliminary results show that some of the other Dengvaxia® cases handled by PAO may follow the same trajectory as that of Anjielika’s.

If Erfe and Co. somehow succeeds to prove a link between Dengvaxia® and any of the major side effects, a personal injury class suit will surely follow, which may cost the financially ailing[38] Sanofi billions in damages and billions in lost potential revenues.

Yes, there’s a chance that Erfe and the Public Attorney’s Office may destroy Sanofi, France’s largest pharmaceutical company… or at least hurt it to the tune of a few billion dollars.

And that’s why Sanofi and its allies in the Philippine government is pulling out all stops to discredit the Public Attorney’s Office, as it sends all the medical professionals in its payroll to attack the credibility of PAO, especially those of Dr. Erwin Erfe and PAO chief Atty. Persida Rueda-Acosta.

Why? Because if the Public Attorney’s Office succeeds, then it’s the end not only for Sanofi’s hopes for Dengvaxia, but also for the careers of the top government officials who didn’t mind endangering hundreds of thousands of poor Filipino kids for their own personal gain. [ThinkingPinoy]

Note: References are listed below.

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REFERENCES:

[1] Public Attorney’s Office Press Conference held on 05 February 2018 in the PAO headquarters in Quezon City, Philippines.
[2] Nieto, R.J. Phone interview with Public Attorney’s Office head Atty. Persida Rueda-Acosta. ThinkingPinoy. 03 February 2018.
[3] Erfe, E. Facebook Post. 06 February 2018. Erfe is the director of PAO’s Forensic Laboratory.
[4] Gershman et Al. “Viscerotropic disease: Case definition and guidelines for collection, analysis, and presentation of immunization safety data”. Vaccine Vol. 33 Issue 33. 13 July 2012.
[5] World Health Organization - Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety. “Safety of CYD-TDV dengue vaccine”. WHO Weekly Epidemiological Report. 21 August 2015.
[6] Thomas, R. “Yellow fever vaccine-associated viscerotropic disease: current perspectives”. Drug Design, Development and Therapy 2016; 10: 3345–3353. 12 October 2016.
[7] “Stamaril: Side Effects / Adverse Reactions”. MIMS-Singapore pharmaceutical database.
[8] Mayo Clinic Staff. “Thrombocytopenia (low platelet count)”. Mayo Clinic. 31 March 2015.
[9] “-penia”. Dictionary.com
[10] Schmerling, R. (MD). “Approach to the patient with myalgia”. UpToDate. 25 April 2016.
[11] World Health Organization - Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety. “Safety of yellow fever vaccine”. WHO Weekly Epidemiological Report. 8 August 2008.
[12] WHO Working Group on Technical Specifications for Manufacture and Evaluation of Yellow Fever Vaccines. Meeting Report. World Health Organization. 13 May 2009. p. 7.
[13] Centers for Disease Control. “Understanding How Vaccines Work”. United States Centers for Disease Control. February 2013.
[14] Lodish, H. et Al. “Section 6.3 Viruses: Structure, Function, and Uses”. Molecular Cell Biology 4th Edition. WH Freeman and Co. 2000.
[15] Smith, P. ”Dengue Vaccine (CYD-TDV ‘Dengvaxia®’) Clinical Trial Results”. World Health Organization - Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization. 14 April 2016.
[16] Guy, B. et Al. “Development of the Sanofi Pasteur tetravalent dengue vaccine: One more step forward”. Vaccine Volume 33, Issue 50. 10 December 2015. p. 7100-7111.
[17] Robertson, T. Sensitization to Drugs. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Department of Psychology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. 09 February 2014.
[18] Nieto, R.J. “#DengGate: Mr. President, here’s the memo you asked for”. ThinkingPinoy. 13 December 2017.
[19] Florczak-Wyspiańska, J. et Al. “Yellow fever vaccine-associated neurotropic disease (YEL-AND) – A case report”. Neurologia i Neurochirurgia Polska Vol. 51, Issue 1. January–February 2017. p. 101-105.
[20] National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “Meningitis and Encephalitis Fact Sheet”. United States National Institutes of Health. Last modified 08 May 2017.
[21] National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “Guillain-Barré Syndrome Fact Sheet”. United States National Institutes of Health. Last modified 10 May 2017.
[22] National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis Information Page”. United States National Institutes of Health. Last modified 23 May 2017.
[23] CNN Philippines Staff. “TIMELINE: The Dengvaxia® controversy”. CNN Philippines. 06 February 2018.
[24] Ewan, P. “Anaphylaxis”. British Medical Journal 316(7144): 1584. 23 May 1998.
[25] Nieto, R.J. “#DengGate: Aquino’s Garin ignores WHO warnings, risks 700k Filipino kids’ lives”. ThinkingPinoy. 03 December 2017.
[26] “Dengvaxia: Side Effects / Adverse Reactions”. MIMS-Philippines pharmaceutical database.
[27] Gotuzzo, E. et Al. “Efficacy and Duration of Immunity after Yellow Fever Vaccination: Systematic Review on the Need for a Booster Every 10 Years”. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 89(3): 434–444. 04 September 2013.
[28] Seligman, SJ. “Risk groups for yellow fever vaccine-associated viscerotropic disease (YEL-AVD)”. Vaccine 32(44):5769-7. 07 October 2014.
[29] Vaccine efficacy against confirmed dengue pooled across both trials ewas 59.2% in the year following the primary series (per protocol analysis). “Questions and Answers on Dengue Vaccines”. World Health Organization.
[30] Nieto, RJ. “#DengGate: Kid in ICU for Dengue only 3 months after 3rd Dose”. ThinkingPinoy. 05 December 2017.
[31] Nieto, RJ. “#DengGate: Botched Tarlac Dengvaxia® case hints DoH coverup”. ThinkingPinoy. 05 December 2017.
[32] HeadStart with Karen Davila. “PH spending P3-B on dengue vaccines”. ANC. 03 January 2016.
[33] Nieto, RJ. “#DengGate: Leaked emails show Pnoy, Garin, Hartigan-Go intentionally bent rules for Sanofi”. ThinkingPinoy. 05 February 2018.
[34] Harris, G. et Al. “Despite Warnings, Drug Giant Took Long Path to Vioxx Recall”. NY Times. 14 November 2004.
[35] Wilson, D. “Merck to Pay $950 Million Over Vioxx”. NYTimes. 22 November2011.
[36] See 25.
[37] Sanofi. “Sanofi updates information on dengue vaccine”. Press Release. 29 November 2017.
[38] Blamont, M. et Al. “Sanofi's M&A misses frustrate some investors in drugmaker”. Reuters. 20 January 2017.

The Department of Health and Sanofi's collective strategy in three words: "INJECT AND FORGET".

NOTES:

A Table of References is included at the end of this article.
I'll just proofread a little later. I'm already exhausted.

In November 2017, Sanofi Pasteur in a press release admitted that its anti-dengue drug Dengvaxia (CYD-TDV) may enhance dengue symptoms for seronegative recipients, or those who have never had dengue prior to vaccination [1]. Two weeks later, the World Health Organization (WHO) seconded [2] Sanofi’s new contraindication as it advised against vaccinating seronegative individuals with the said drug.

Sanofi Dengvaxia’s flaw is in its ability to serve as a first-time infection for seronegative recipients, so that they immediately develop severe dengue right after their first real-life infection, as opposed to just mild or even asymptomatic dengue fever for seronegatives who’ve never received the vaccine[3].

This phenomenon is called Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE). Seronegative individuals infected for the first time with dengue develop lifelong immunity against the dengue strain that infected them. Should they be subsequently infected with a different strain, however, severe dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome occurs [4].
The confirmation of ADE in Dengvaxia Recipients would not have been much of an issue if not for the fact that Sanofi willfully neglected to conduct pertinent studies about this potential issue prior to launching the Aquino-era anti-dengue mass vaccination program in April 2016.
The Basic WHO Guidelines

A report delivered by Peter Smith of London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine[5] during the April 2016 WHO-SAGE meeting indicated that seronegative children 9 years and up are at risk of ADE. The 17 March 2016 WHO-SAGE background paper [6] reflects the results Smith’s report as it, and so does a subsequent April 2016 WHO-SAGE paper [7].

The recommendations are as follows:

If 90% or more of a target population is seropositive, mass vaccination at 9 years of age offers optimal impact.
If over 50% but below 90% of a target population is seropositive, mass vaccination at 11 to 14 years of age is preferable.
If less than 50% of a target population is seropositive, mass vaccination is not recommended.

Using these WHO guidelines, the Philippine Department of Health (DOH), headed by Sec. Janette Garin, launched a mass vaccination program in April 2016 that targeted 1,000,000 4th graders in Luzon, most of whom are 9 years old. Almost half of this number were vaccinated before Garin left office in June 2016.

Per WHO guidelines, the decision to mass vaccinate 9-year-olds could only be justified if 90% of them are seropositive. And this is exactly what Garin claimed when she, in defense of the program, said[8], “the DOH officials will be vindicated because we did something that will save 90 percent of Filipino children”.

Garin bastardizes WHO Guidelines

Garin based her claim on the Alera Paper[9], a survey of dengue seroprevalence published February 2016, about two months before she mass-vaccinated the kids. A closer look at the paper, however, shows that either Garin intentionally misrepresented the paper, or she’s just plain stupid, for the following reasons:

First, all the 1,000 survey respondents come from the Punta Princesa, a small village of 27,000 in Cebu City, so that the paper should apply to Punta Princesa alone. Even generalizing the findings to the entirety of Cebu City with a population of 923,000 [10] would still qualify as terrible mathematics due to selective sampling.

But Garin did even worse: she used the seroprevalence rate of a small village in Cebu as a basis of the seroprevalence rate of a target population in the island of Luzon. This goes totally against the WHO recommendation that decisions should be supported by geographically relevant seroprevalence studie s[11]. How in the world can a seroprevalence study in Cebu be applicable to Luzon?Second, Figure 2 of the Alera Paper (shown below) indicates only 80% seroprevalence among those within the 6-15 age bracket, with no specific information pertaining to 9-year-olds. Per WHO guidelines at the time, 80% seroprevalence implied that mass vaccinations are recommended only for those 11 years and up and not 9-year-olds.

In short, Garin had no basis for her claim that 9-year-old kids in Luzon are 90% seropositive. Garin should not have greenlighted the April 2016 mass vaccination program at all.

But the Bad Science doesn’t end there: aside from severe dengue, another side effect may also be multi-organ system failure. To make matters even worse, this multi-organ system failure may occur with or without a dengue infection.

Dengvaxia and Multi-Organ Failure

Tasked by the Justice Department with providing legal assistance to Dengvaxia victims, the Public Attorney’s Office has autopsied 22 bodies[12] as of 20 February 2018, with a lot more in line.

According to PAO Forensic Laboratory Dr. Erwin Erfe, these deaths seem to reveal a pattern: a vast majority of the autopsied remains show strong signs of Viscerotropic-Like Disease (VLD)[13], characterized by the swelling and/or bleeding of multiple internal organs, which may have led to organ failure and eventually, death.

Some experts may dismiss Erfe’s claims as wild. However, no less than Bruno Guy of Sanofi’s Research and Discovery Department[14] repeatedly admitted that VLD is a potential side effect of Dengvaxia. He admitted this in scientific papers he co-authored in 2010[15], 2014[16], 2015[17], and 2016[18].

Despite lacking further studies on the incidence rate of VLD among Dengvaxia recipients, the Department of Health, along with its enabler Sanofi, greenlighted the Dengvaxia Program involving one million kids. The bad science on DOH’s part is already a given, but adding the fact that Sanofi willfully sold DOH 1 million Dengvaxia regimens, despite the lack of data supporting such a massive requirement, suggests that Sanofi was complicit[19].

To make matters worse, many of these kids were never screened for pre-existing conditions that could have increased their risk for contracting not only VLD, but also severe dengue. Many of them even got vaccinated without consent from the kids’ parents[20].

Briefly Dissecting the Organ Failure Issue

There are two possibilities here: (1) VLD was due to the vaccine, or (2) VLD was due to some pre-existing condition. If the first is true, then we’re done. If the second was true, the absence of due diligence on the part of the DOH – in this case the sufficient pre-screening of vaccine recipients – puts the burden of evidence on DOH. That is, it may be presumed – at least in legal terms – that Dengvaxia caused VLD until the DOH or Sanofi proves otherwise.

For argument’s sake, however, let’s assume that a given casualty had a pre-existing condition that could have caused VLD. Would the victim remain alive if Dengvaxia wasn’t around? Again, the fact that DOH and Sanofi agreed to administer Dengvaxia without sufficient pre-screening smacks of willful negligence on their part.

Again, there was no study to confirm the incidence rates of VLD – of multi-organ failure – among Dengvaxia recipients. Instead of conducting one, DOH and Sanofi decided to proceed with injecting a million kids with the experimental drug.

There are at least 22 casualties right now, and the figure is a very modest estimate at that.

Whichever way it goes, the collective criminal negligence of Sanofi and the Department of Health resulted into innocent kids of trusting parents being hospitalized, possibly with some of them ending up dead.

Sanofi thinks Filipino lives are less valuable?

The first step towards confirming the VLD risk among Dengvaxia recipients should be an attempt at benchmarking VLD incidence rates prior to the introduction of Dengvaxia.

After getting a suitable benchmark, i.e. an area’s pre-Dengvaxia VLD incidence rate, it can then be compared to the ensuing post-Dengvaxia VLD incidence rate. That is, testing for statistical significance, the presence (or absence) of a considerable increase in VLD incidence rates after Dengvaxia’s introduction to a target population would confirm (or refute) the hypothesis that Dengvaxia may cause VLD.

Interestingly, Sanofi did sponsor a “Step One (VLD Benchmarking) Study”. With funding from Sanofi, RTI Health Solutions’ December 2017 paper entitled “Incidence Study of Viscerotropic-Like and Neurotropic-Like Disease in Three Dengue-Endemic Countries[21]”, did exactly that. That is, the study attempted to estimate the incidence rate of multi-organ dysfunction prior to Dengvaxia’s market release.

The 2017 Sanofi Paper’s cover page is shown below:

Sanofi then acknowledged the paper’s receipt in December 2017.

Given this paper, checking for significant increases in post-Dengvaxia VLD incidence rates would be relatively easy, as we now have a figure to compare to.

But….

No Philippines?

Unfortunately, the study DID NOT include the Philippines: it includes only Malaysia, Brazil, and Mexico. After, the paper itself admits that making direct comparison of results among the three countries is difficult, let alone comparing it to another country that wasn’t included in the study, such as the Philippines.

That is, should the Malaysian, the Brazilian, or the Mexican governments can more easily check for significant increases in VLD cases should they decide to mass vaccinate kids with Dengvaxia.
That way, should multiple multi-organ system failure cases after Dengvaxia vaccination be reported, the government can more easily check if Dengvaxia did cause increased VLD incidence, or whether the number of such new VLD cases are too small to justify widespread alarm.

BUT THAT CANNOT BE DONE IN THE PHILIPPINES BECAUSE THE PHILIPPINES IS NOT IN THAT SANOFI PAPER.

DOH and Sanofi is hiding something

ThinkingPinoy has discovered a DoH-led coverup of the Dengvaxia Scandal in as early as December 2017[22], but it appears that there’s more to in that just that.

Despite being the country with the greatest number of Dengvaxia recipients to date, Sanofi seems to have excluded the Philippines in the said VLD benchmarking effort. Why did Sanofi exclude the Philippines? Why did it choose Malaysia, Brazil, and Mexico, when the fact of the matter is that the Philippines is the single biggest Dengvaxia buyer?

Did Sanofi think that Filipino lives are worth less than that those of Malaysians, Brazilians, and Mexicans… or was Sanofi confident that Philippine regulators will greenlight Dengvaxia despite this glaring detail?

Well, based on the leaked DOH emails later confirmed to be authentic per the early February Senate Hearing on Dengvaxia, conflicted health officials were indeed overeager to launch Dengvaxia in Philippines.

For one, Health Undersecretary Kenneth Hartigan-Go was even volunteered to create new regulations[23] to ease Dengvaxia’s entry into the country. Hartigan-Go has been a Zuellig beneficiary for most of his professional life. Zuellig is Dengvaxia’s exclusive distributor in the Philippines.

But wait, there’s more.

Inject and Forget

A look at the fifth page of Sanofi’s Registration Application[24] submitted to the Philippine Food and Drug Administration shows that Sanofi never intended to include the Philippines in the said benchmarking paper, as it declared that the study to measure background incidence rates of viscerotropism was being conducted in the three countries mentioned, with zero indication that Sanofi intends to include the Philippines in it.

Despite this, Sanofi promised FDA that it will conduct a 5-year monitoring of adverse events of special interest (AESI), such as when a recipient gets sick shortly after vaccination. The said AESI monitoring supposedly commenced right after the government starts injecting Dengvaxia.

Sources from both DOH and FDA informed ThinkingPinoy that Sanofi has yet to submit preliminary results of AESI monitoring to the government.

While it can be argued that the final report won’t be there until five years after Dengvaxia’s launch, it must be noted that Sanofi promised in the same Registration Application to submit Period Benefit Risk Evaluation Reports (PBRER) every six months.

Unfortunately, almost 24 months have already elapsed since Dengvaxia’s Philippine Debut, yet not a single PBRER has been submitted to the DOH, suggesting either Sanofi is either willfully neglecting its statutory obligations… or that the initial three PBRER’s looks so bad, Sanofi doesn’t want to give the DOH a copy.

Suffice it to say, DOH and Sanofi rushed the procurement, approval, and administration of the highly experimental drug Dengvaxia with little to no care about the side effects that Dengvaxia may cause.

To put it simply, Filipinos were indeed treated as if their bodies and souls are worth less than Malaysia, Brazil, and Mexico.

Less than Guinea Pigs

ThinkingPinoy suddenly recalled Senator Dick Gordon’s accusation that Sanofi and DOH used Filipino kids as guinea pigs. Gordon's a little wrong: Guinea pigs are test subjects, but THERE ARE NO TESTS.

So… if the hundreds of thousands of 9-year-olds who received Dengvaxia weren’t treated as guinea pigs, how exactly were they treated?

By the looks of it, Sanofi and DOH saw the 4th graders as disposable money machines, nothing more and nothing less.

At least twenty-two of those money makers have died so far, and we’re far from the end of this healthcare disaster of intercontinental proportions.

How many more deaths are needed for Sanofi to honestly address the crisis? And more importantly, how many more are needed for DoH to realize that it must advocate not for Big Pharmaceutical Companies, but for the Filipino People?

The answers to these questions, I do not know. [ThinkingPinoy]

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REFERENCES:

[1] Sanofi. Sanofi updates information on dengue vaccine. Press Release. 29 November 2017.

[2] World Health Organization. WHO advises Dengvaxia be used only in people previously infected with dengue. Press Release. 13 December 2017.

[3] Nieto, R. Aquino’s Garin ignores WHO warnings, risks 700k Filipino kids’ lives. ThinkingPinoy. 03 December 2017.

[4] Guzman, M. et Al. “The Complexity of Antibody-Dependent Enhancement of Dengue Virus Infection”. Viruses. 08 December 2010.

[5] Smith, P. Dengue Vaccine (CYD-TDV “Dengvaxia®”) Clinical Trial Results. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. 14 April 2016.

[6] Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization. Background Paper on Dengue Vaccines. World Health Organization Weekly Epidemiological Record. 17 March 2016.

[7] Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization. Summary of the April 2016 meeting of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE). World Health Organization Weekly Epidemiological Record. 14 April 2016.

[8] Davila, K. 'My conscience is clear': Garin ready to face raps over Dengvaxia. ANC Headstart. 06 February 2018.

[9] Alera, M. et Al. Incidence of Dengue Virus Infection in Adults and Children in a Prospective Longitudinal Cohort in the Philippines. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 04 February 2016.

[10] Philippine Statistics Authority. Population of Region VII - Central Visayas (Based on the 2015 Census of Population). 06 June 2016.

[11] See [6]

[12] Nieto, R. Dengvaxia Victim No. 22. ThinkingPinoy. 16 February 2018.

[13] Gaston, C. Parents with children vaccinated with Dengvaxia troop to PAO building. GMA News. 06 February 2018.

[14] Sanofi. Bio: Bruno Guy. Retrieved 20 February 2018.

[15] Guy, B. et Al. Development of Sanofi Pasteur tetravalent dengue vaccine. Human Vaccines. Human Vaccines. September 2010.

[16] Guy, B. et Al. Live virus vaccines based on a yellow fever vaccine backbone: Standardized template with key considerations for a risk/benefit assessment. Vaccine. 27 October 2014.

[17] Guy, B. et Al. Development of the Sanofi Pasteur tetravalent dengue vaccine: One more step forward. Vaccine. 10 December 2015.

[18] Guy, B. et Al. Vaccination Against Dengue: Challenges and Current Developments. Annual Review of Medicine. 10 October 2015.

[19] Nieto, R. DoH and Sanofi's Secret: Dengvaxia may cause multiple organ failure. ThinkingPinoy. 07 February 2017.

[20] Nieto, R. Kid in ICU for dengue only 3 months after 3rd dose -- Tarlac Mom. ThinkingPinoy. 05 December 2017.

[21] Johannes, C. et Al. Incidence of Viscerotropic-Like and Neurotropic-Like Disease in Three Dengue-Endemic Countries. RTIHS Health Solutions. 06 December 2017.

[22] Nieto, R. Botched Tarlac Dengvaxia case hints DoH-led coverup. ThinkingPinoy. 05 February 2018.

[23] Nieto, R. Leaked emails show PNoy, Garin, Hartigan-Go intentionally bent rules for Sanofi. ThinkingPinoy. 05 February 2018.

[24] Sanofi. Sanofi Pasteur Dengue Vaccine Initial Marketing Authorization Application. 22 December 2015.
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Did you know that Senator Leila de Lima almost became a Chief Justice?

The Battles for Chief Justice over the past two decades are nothing short of Amazing. And yes, that’s with an “s”, and a capital “A”.

IMPORTANT NOTE: ThinkingPinoy spoke recently with a Justice who’s extremely privy to the inner workings of the Supreme Court. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because save for the Supreme Court spokesperson, court officials traditionally do not speak in public, and the Supreme Court heavily respects tradition. Unless otherwise specified, all claims here are based on the Justice’s version of events.

Let’s call him Justice Joseph de Mesa, or JD for short. For purposes of discussion, all pronouns will use “Joseph” as an antecedent but this should not in any way suggest the actual gender of this justice. You see, I fiercely protect my sources, especially JD because I will still need to talk to him in the near future and beyond, and I think he may need me to speak about things that he cannot say publicly himself.

Note that I have spent all night writing this so I do not have the time to proofread it anymore. I have a morning radio show Karambola sa DWIZ 882 at 8-10AM so I need to get some sleep. I apologize for any typographical error.

Let’s go.

What’s gonna happen

JD said Solicitor General Jose Calida will be filing a Quo Warranto petition directed against the validity of Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno’s appointment.

A Quo Warranto is a writ or legal action requiring a person to show by what warrant an office or franchise is held, claimed, or exercised. Simply put, it requires the respondent – in this case Sereno – to justify why she’s an associate justice.

If granted, Sereno’s appointment would be rendered void from the beginning, thereby effectively removing her from the Supreme Court. That is, the prospective Impeachment Trial that follows after the House of Representatives transmits the articles of impeachment to the Senate would be rendered moot and academic.
JD said the grounds would most likely include, among others, [1] Sereno’s failure to provide her SALN from the 10 years immediately preceding her appointment, and [2] Sereno’s psychiatric report.

Collateral attacks against impeachable officials, however, are supposedly forbidden under Philippine Law. Calida’s Quo Warranto petition is an example of such. But then, JD said the Supreme Court has the final say on what’s legal and what isn’t, and the SC can find a legal way to go about it.

JD is right on that one. After all, the SC decision on Kabigting vs. Acting Director of Prisons [G.R. No. L-15548] states that “…the Supreme Court, being the court of last resort, is the final arbiter of all legal questions…”.

But I think it would be fun if we can let JD give us a glimpse of the inner workings of this institution, culminating to the problem that is Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Why the enthusiasm?

JD said this “Sereno Saga” is the unintended culmination of the maneuverings of Justice Antonio Carpio and his law firm CVC Law, or more popularly known as “The Firm”.

After President Joseph Estrada exited Malacañang in 2001, JD said successor President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wanted to put Estrada in jail on plunder charges, with the help of Arroyo’s favorite law firm CVC Law. The trial, which ran from 2001 to 2007, made Estrada the first and only person convicted under the Philippine Plunder Law.“The Firm” enjoyed immense influence during the early Arroyo years, as a number of its senior partners occupied powerful positions in the government:

Avelino “Nonong” Cruz was the Presidential Legal Counsel until his 2004 appointment as Defense Secretary [DND].
Simeon Marcelo was Ombudsman [Omb].
Joe Nathan Tenefrancia headed the Presidential Management Staff [AsiaLaw].

Then CVC Law senior partner Antonio Carpio was made Supreme Court Associate Justice in 2001, making him the one of the youngest SC appointees in history [SC], while the remaining senior partners managed The Firm: Arthur “Pancho” Villaraza was its CEO and Raoul Angangco was in the executive board.

But there’s a catch: JD said Carpio wasn’t supposed to be appointed to SC back then.

He said it was supposed to be Renato Corona.

Aniano, Renato, Antonio, Arroyo

In 2001, a slot in the Supreme Court was in the offing after the retirement of Justice Minerva Gonzaga-Reyes, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. All the lawyers close to Arroyo were gunning for the position.

JD said Arroyo’s “Top Two Choices” were Renato Corona, her long-time Chief of Staff, and Antonio Carpio who was, at the time, working for “The Firm”, the same firm that prepared the plunder case against Estrada.

The catch: there’s only one Associate Justice slot for 2001, with the next one coming in 2002.

One of the two candidates had to give way.

JD said the eventual consensus was that Corona would be Associate Justice, while Carpio will be Ombudsman. Carpio supposedly agreed, as the Ombudsman is far more powerful than an Associate Justice.

Aniano Desierto, the sitting Ombudsman at the time, would complete his term in 2002 [Omb].

JD said on October 25, 2015, Arroyo gave Corona his appointment papers. The next morning, however, Corona was surprised to learn from a Palace aide that Carpio was about to take his oath as Associate Justice in a few hours. Afterwards, a military official approached Corona and said Arroyo requested the return of his appointment papers, and he did return them.

JD said Corona asked the military official if he can at least photocopy the document first, and the official obliged.

But why did this happen?

JD said the appointment of CVC lawyers to key government posts was no coincidence: he said CVC wanted to someday have a Philippine President who comes from their ranks… and Carpio’s 2001 appointment was key.

JD said CVC had a well-designed long-term plan to put a CVC lawyer on top of the Philippine power pyramid:

Nonong Cruz, as defense secretary, would be able to establish connections in the Armed Forces.
Simeon Marcelo, as Ombudsman, can put a lid on any political opponent.
Joe Tenefrancia, as PMS chief, serves as Arroyo’s de facto cordon sanitaire. He potentially can block the access of CVC rivals to Arroyo.
Pancho Villaraza and Raoul Angangco manage the Firm to ensure continuously massive income stream, i.e. funding for a future presidential campaign.

And JD said they plan to make Carpio a Philippine President, by turning him into a Chief Justice first.

Carpio was only 52 years old at the time, and that’s very young by “industry standards”. A Chief Justice position would not only provide long-term power and influence, but it is a source of gravitas – a steppingstone – for a Presidential Aspirant.

Moreover, should future conditions be insufficient to justify a presidential run, Carpio can choose to remain Chief Justice, and he will do so until he reaches 70.

That means holding so much power for a long, long time.

But due to certain circumstance that will be explained shortly, JD said Carpio cannot be made Chief Justice if he wasn’t appointed in 2001.

And JD said that’s why Carpio had to betray his best friend Corona.

The Search for the Chief Justice

The Supreme Court heavily respects tradition, and it was the tradition at the time for a President to choose a Chief Justice among the three or the five most senior associate justices, with seniority based on the length of time served as associate justice.

JD said according to CVC’s calculations, 2001 was the optimal date for Carpio’s SC appointment, i.e. it gives Carpio the best odds of becoming a Chief Justice while Arroyo was still president.

This made sense when JD told me that Carpio, along with CVC, supported the nomination of Associate Justice Artemio Panganiban for Chief Justice in 2005, right after Chief Justice Hilario Davide reached 70, the mandatory retirement age.

Upon Davide’s retirement, JD said the top choices were Justices Reynato Puno and Artemio Panganiban. However, Puno was a lot younger than Panganiban as he will reach 70 on 17 May 2010, or less than two months before Arroyo finishes her term.

JD said this is bad for CVC law, because that’d mean the ban on midnight appointments may be in effect, thereby preventing Arroyo from appointing a new chief justice to replace Puno.

JD said Panganiban, who turns 70 in 2007, was the more optimal choice vis-à-vis CVC’s interests. By the time Panganiban retires, JD said Carpio would be among the top 5 most senior justices in the High Court, supposedly making him eligible for nomination as Chief Justice per tradition.

Panganiban was eventually appointed Chief Justice in 2005, which raised hopes for CVC’s Carpio because he could be nominated for Chief Justice when Panganiban steps down in 2007.

And this will not be possible if Corona was appointed in 2001.

Carpio had to be “it”, and Corona was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2002, after another sitting justice retired.

For Carpio in 2005, so far, so good.

The Firm's Miscalculation

JD said everything was happening according to plan, until Carpio and CVC Law eventually made a terrible miscalculation.

On 27 June 2005, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went on TV to admit that it was her voice behind the leaked phone conversation that ignited the “Hello Garci” Scandal [GMA]. Arroyo’s hold on power immediately fell under grave threat as she was bombarded by national media and other influential civil society groups.

Everybody – including a number of Arroyo’s own cabinet members – thought she would fall.

And that’s what led to the “Hyatt 10” incident, where seven secretaries of the Cabinet and three heads of government agencies simultaneously resigned from their posts on 08 July 2005. These officials include:

Corazon "Dinky" Soliman, Social Welfare Secretary notorious for allegedly pocketing Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) donations.
Imelda "Meldy" Nicolas, Lead Convenor of the National Anti-Poverty Commission and sister of Loida Nicolas-Lewis and one of the key figures involved in the #LeniLeaks Scandal.
Florencio “Butch” Abad, Secretary of the Department of Education and involved in the Dengvaxia Scandal.

What many failed to notice, JD said, was that it was actually CVC law who planned and executed this failed overthrow of Arroyo.

JD said it was CVC that flew to Hong Kong to meet then Vice-president Noli de Castro to ask him to succeed Arroyo upon the latter’s deposal. JD said CVC had to do this because the military, at the time, insisted that they would support a new government only through constitutional succession.

JD said De Castro rejected the offer. De Castro eventually went to Arroyo and explained to her that her own lawyers are scheming against her.

And that was when things went downhill for Carpio and CVC law, JD said.

Suffice it to say, when Panganiban stepped down as Chief Justice two years later in 2007, Carpio was already out of the running and Reynato Puno, who was bypassed in 2005, became the new Chief Justice.
Arroyo tightened her precarious grip on the presidency post-Hyatt 10 by pardoning the incarcerated Estrada [Reuters], in an attempt to quell the unrest among Estrada’s still-gigantic mass support base.

Afterwards, Arroyo’s was largely safe for the rest of her term, i.e. CVC was forced out of the Halls of Power until Arroyo stepped down in 2010.

With CVC Law’s fall from grace, JD said The Firm started to feel financial strains, eventually leading to CVC splitting in into two separate firms as a couple of senior partners left the group over managerial and financial differences [Inq].

To make matters worse for Carpio, Arroyo controversially appointed Renato Corona as Chief Justice barely over a month before her term ended.

That is, the guy that Carpio supposedly betrayed for him to become Chief Justice, actually became the Chief Justice instead.

But JD said Carpio wasn’t done just yet.

Carpio and Aquino

Aquino’s first Supreme Court appointee was then University of the Philippines Law Professor Maria Lourdes Sereno. An academician with little to no litigation experience and zero experience as a trial judge, JD said Sereno badly needed a mentor and Carpio volunteered to be her sensei.

JD said Sereno is not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, and Carpio was quick to take advantage. He said Carpio made Sereno his personal attack dog to pave the way for then Chief Justice Renato Corona’s ouster.

This made quite some sense when I saw that Carpio and Sereno tag-teamed Corona on the Supreme Court decision involving Arroyo’s foreign travel for medical reasons.

I will not comment on whether Arroyo should have been allowed to travel or not, but what’s clear is that Sereno, despite being the most junior Associate Justice, had the gall to lecture Corona – with uncharacteristically strong words – in her dissenting opinion.

Take a look at the 2011 GMA News report “Dissenting opinions shed light on Corona's role in pro-Arroyo TRO” to see how Carpio and Sereno apparently worked hand-in-hand against Corona.

Corona even publicly accused Carpio and CVC law of masterminding his impeachment, an allegation that The Firm denied [Inq].

Regardless, we all know that Corona was impeached in 2012. What we don’t know, however, is that the Senate at the time supposedly told the Aquino Administration that it will impeach Corona on the condition that Aquino will not promote Carpio to Chief Justice. JD said many senators weren’t happy with the scheming Carpio, especially then Senator Jinggoy Estrada, who was put in jail thanks to the plunder case filed by Carpio’s Law Firm.

JD said Aquino agreed and the Senate removed Corona from office, and the search for the new chief justice was on.

Chief Justice Leila de Lima

JD said Aquino intended to fulfill his promise to the Senate not to appoint Carpio as Corona’s replacement. After all, Aquino still needed the Senate’s support for his legislative agenda, among others.

He said Aquino’s number two choice was the Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, which appears to absolutely true as de Lima pleaded multiple times to the Judicial and Bar Council to give her a “fair chance” at getting the Chief Justice nomination [Inq].

But de Lima didn’t make the shortlist.

JD said Carpio gave strict instructions to Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta, who was JBC presiding officer back then, to specifically EXCLUDE de Lima in the shortlist, saying that Carpio told Peralta that de Lima would become CJ if that happened.

JD said JBC, as consolation to Aquino, complied with the latter's second request, which was to include Sereno in the shortlist. This explains why JBC included Sereno in the shortlist despite her failure to submit all the requirements.

To be fair to Peralta, I would probably exclude de Lima from the shortlist with or without Carpio’s prodding, for the simple reason that a newcomer has never been made a Chief Justice ever, and the SC supposedly respects tradition.

But JD said that from Carpio, who still had little idea about the deal Aquino made with the 2012 Senate, thought de Lima’s exclusion from the shortlist would enhance his chances at becoming Corona’s replacement.

JD said Carpio then went on to tell then Associate Justice Lourdes Sereno to inhibit herself from the search for Chief Justice.

JD said that to Carpio’s horror, Sereno declined.

Sereno, like Carpio, WANTED to become chief justice.

And that’s what happened. JD said despite Aquino’s misgivings regarding Sereno’s qualifications, Aquino still had to choose her because [1] She’s one extremely loyal attack dog with a long shelf life and [2] Aquino wasn’t familiar with all the other shortlisted candidates.

And voila! To Carpio’s unmistakable consternation, we got a Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno.

Sereno’s fall started during the ascent

Widely seen as Carpio’s attack dog that got Corona removed, Supreme Court employees greeted Sereno’s appointment with the utmost aloofness. JD said nobody wanted to work for her, and Sereno got people from outside, most of whom come from Sereno’s UP Law Portia Sorority Sisters.

JD said Corona was widely loved by employees in the Supreme Court, and they hated Sereno for being one of the conspirators behind his removal.

JD said Sereno and her staff didn’t know “how to be Chief Justice”, so Sereno committed, wittingly or unwittingly, error after error. This cemented her reputation in the High Court as one of the most incompetent chief justices ever.

But Sereno’s problems go further beyond sheer incompetence, JD said. JD said Sereno brought her duplicity to the Office of the Chief Justice, as she deceived her High Court peers, in violation of the law.

For example, Sereno announced the launch of a “Judiciary Decentralized Office” without consulting the Supreme Court En Banc. Along with the launch was the announcement that she would appoint her friend, Sandiganbayan Justice Geraldine Econg, to head the said office.

The angered justices called Sereno for an En Banc meeting. Despite Sereno’s misdemeanor, the Justices still tried to be nice to her as they suggested to Sereno to gently take it down a notch. They asked Sereno to tell media that the JDO proposal was still being studied with Econg at the helm, providing Sereno and her friend a graceful way out.

However, instead of doing so, Sereno told the press that the En Banc affirmed Econg’s appointment to the JDO, which is total opposite of what they agreed upon.

This is just one of the many infractions that Sereno committed, and I leave it to the reader to check recent news articles that detail how she violated other laws and protocols.

Sereno vs Duterte Round 1: Narco List

As expected, Sereno indeed became Aquino’s most loyal attack dog in the Supreme Court, especially after President Rodrigo Duterte entered Malacañang in mid-2016.

At around 12:30 AM of Sunday, 07 August 2016, Duterte publicly released a “Narco List” that supposedly enumerates the names of current and former public officials who are involved in the illegal drug trade.

Among these names were eight judges, and Duterte expressly instructed the said judges to report to the Supreme Court right away and explain their side.

JD said that on Sunday morning, Court Administrator Midas Marquez, who would be in charge of the issue, suggested to Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore “Teddy” Te that the High Court could say:

“The Chief Justice instructed the Court Administrator to wait for the judges tomorrow Monday and require them to submit their comments or explanations within a non-extendible period of five days after which the Court Administrator shall initiate an investigation into the allegations.”

Note that the exact wording used may slightly vary because I only based the previous quote on the notes that I have written during the confidential interview.

On Monday morning and instead of heeding Marquez’s suggestion, JD said Spokesperson Te sent a letter addressed to President Duterte and coursed through Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, asking Office of the President to provide details of the allegations against the judges.

Aguirre’s Justice Department is in Padre Faura while Malacañang is in San Miguel Manila, and JD said Sereno didn’t want to wait.

JD said Sereno was in a hurry to humiliate the president, so instead of waiting for Duterte to receive the letter from Aguirre, Sereno leaked the letter to traditional media on Monday afternoon.

In short, Duterte found out about Sereno’s letter through the media, and not through official correspondence.

Duterte felt extremely insulted, an he hates being humiliated. That's the kind of guy he is.

And that’s where the Duterte-Sereno rift began, with Sereno drawing first blood.

Sereno vs Duterte Rounds 2, 3, and 4

But this is not the only time Sereno openly antagonized the president.

In January 2017, Sereno said that unsolved drug killings erode public trust in criminal justice system [GMA], a direct attack against Duterte’s War on Drugs.

In March 2017, Sereno “held hostage” the papers of Duterte’s newly-appointed Associate Justice when she refused to release the appointment papers of outgoing Sandiganbayan justice and now incoming SC Associate Justice Samuel Martires. Justices even said that Sereno went on a power trip as she reportedly wanted Martires to “knock at her door” and personally get his appointment papers from her. [MT].

In May 2017, There’s the time issue where Sereno spoke against Martial Law in a forum in Ateneo de Manila, three days after Duterte declared it in Mindanao [ABS].

And by August 2017, it appears the Duterte’s allies’ collective patience wore thin, as the Volunteers against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and Atty. Larry Gadon attempted to impeach Sereno once and for all. The complaint appeared to have failed after failing to get an endorsement from any congressman [Inq].

But that’s when the other Supreme Court justices, upon hearing the complaint, stepped in.

JD: Go Gadon!

JD said several justices who had an axe to grind contacted the House Leadership to offer testimony and evidence. JD said the first one was Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza, who was initially reluctant to testify and offered Speaker Alvarez documents instead. However, JD said Jardeleza lost his reluctance when one of the latter’s friend warned Jardeleza that Sereno may survive the impeachment attempt if he doesn’t testify.

Sereno manipulated the JBC shortlist to exclude Jardeleza: Jardeleza almost didn’t become an associate justice because of Sereno’s machinations [MT].

Jardeleza’s initiative encouraged the other Supreme Court justices to testify against Sereno, and that’s what happened.

At first, I thought that the excruciatingly numerous House Hearings were intended to pressure the Senate into convicting Sereno in a prospective impeachment trial… but I was wrong. From the looks of it and based on the following revelations, it appears that the House Hearings’ target audience was the public at large.

After several months of protracted impeachment hearings, the public has become aware of the multitude of violations that Sereno committed not only against the Supreme Court but against the Constitution itself.

In short, should the Supreme Court En Banc decide to take matters in its own hands, it can use the proceedings of the numerous hearings as justification for their actions. Compare that to simply firing Sereno through an administrative case, something that will make Sereno look like she was being ganged upon.

The House of Representatives is about to wrap up its impeachment hearings, and here’s where things start to rapidly accelerate.

Calida’s Quo Warranto

As mentioned at the beginning of this freakishly long article, JD said Solicitor General Jose Calida will be filing a Quo Warranto petition this morning, questioning the validity of Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno’s appointment.

Again, the High Court general frowns upon collateral attacks against impeachable officials, as that would usurp the Congressional Powers to Impeach.

However, JD said the SC will argue that an impeachment proceeding delves on acts that the Chief Justice committed after her appointment, while the Quo Warranto deals with those that were committed right before.

Based on how I understood JD’s explanation, the Power to Impeach, which is the power to remove officials on the basis of acts committed AFTER they sat in office, will not be violated. This is because Sereno’s removal via a Quo Warranto petition uses a different “Power”, which is the power of the court to ensure that such appointment is valid to begin with.

I think the nearest analogy would be Bongbong Marcos’ electoral protest. The Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, can “remove” VP Leni Robredo from office by declaring her win void from the beginning because she cheated. Removing Leni, an impeachable official, would be constitutional in that sense.

In the same way, the Supreme Court will say that Sereno “cheated” her way through by not submitting her SALNs prior to her appointment.

JD said Sereno herself admitted this. After being asked by the SC En Banc to explain her failure to submit her SALNs, Sereno said 2001-2006 was so long ago so she can’t find them anymore so she sent JBC a letter explaining such, and the JBC subsequently exempted her from the SALN requirement.

JD said the problem is that Sereno has so far failed to provide a copy of the said letter the SC En Banc, and JD said the other justices suspect that this may just be another one of her schemes to deceive her High Court peers.

Finding the Perfect Timing

Regardless, JD said the High Court spoke with House Leadership and asked the latter if it’s possible to delay the transmission of the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, to give them enough time to deal with Calida’s Quo Warranto petition without disrespecting the Senate.

JD said the Senate Leadership said is fine with this arrangement, as the Senate is currently swamped with so much work, they want the House of Representatives to transmit the documents in May 2018.

Given these, JD said SolGen Calida will file the Quo Warranto petition later today, 05 March 2018. Afterwards, Sereno will be given 15 days to submit a reply, and Calida another 15 days to counter. The entire exchange should end on the first or second week of April, giving the court ample time for oral arguments and enough time to pen a decision.

JD said the Supreme Court is poised to grant Calida’s petition. They seriously want to kick Sereno out.

In short, JD said we can all forget about a Senate Impeachment Trial: he said Sereno will be gone from Padre Faura even before it starts.

With these said, I think that the biggest loser isn’t Sereno, but Carpio. After betraying his friend in 2001, it appears that Karma retaliated several times.

First, when Arroyo made Puno CJ after he, the erstwhile CJ candidate, betrayed Arroyo.
Second, when Arroyo made Corona CJ, the same Corona that he betrayed.
Third, when Aquino appointed Sereno, who was just his attack dog.

And today, should JD’s revelations turn out to be accurate, we will see an Antonio Carpio, the biggest critic of Duterte’s Foreign Policy, see what little hope he has left vaporize.

Truth be told, I have no reason to doubt JD because he's been in the public eye for several years now and he's never been accused of lying. Even his friends, who I know personally, vouch for his honesty. Too bad he can't say all of these publicly because he's not the Supreme Court Spokesperson.

On a final note, Sereno will lose but she’s still quite young: she still has a lot of years left to redeem herself. But Carpio, who’s about to hit 70 in a year or two…

Carpio appears to have started as a man with great potential. He then became the man who wanted to gain the world but lost his soul. And now, he’s a soulless man who stands to lose his last sliver of hope for redemption.

What a sad existence that man endures. [ThinkingPinoy]

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Several camps, including the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), are gunning for the dismissal of SolGen Calida's Quo Warranto petition against Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno, arguing that impeachment is the only constitutional means of removing impeachable officials.

I think this is incorrect and let me explain why.

DISCLAIMER: These is my personal opinion regarding the case. Should there be legal infirmities in my explanations, I strongly encourage the reader to point them out in the comments section of the ThinkingPinoy Facebook Page or to email me at TP@ThinkingPinoy.net . Also note that I am already exhausted so I have no more energy to proofread my work.

Let’s go.

First, the meaning of “Removal”

A Justice in the Supreme Court of the Philippines explained to me the nature of Calida's petition and I published it in a previous Thinking Pinoy article.

In that article, the Justice said SolGen Calida's Quo Warranto petition assails Sereno's qualifications at the time of her appointment as CJ in 2012. If granted, Calida's petition would render Sereno's appointment void ab initio, or void from the beginning.

That is, it will be as if Sereno was never Chief Justice. That is, it will be as if there wasn't any Chief Justice to remove because the Chief Justice's appointment -- Sereno's 2012 appointment -- would be considered invalid.
Strictly speaking, Sereno’s “removal from office” presupposes Sereno’s constitutional appointment as Chief Justice, a condition that won’t exist if her appointment was invalid in the first place.

The Justice said this implies that Calida's petition progresses over a different track vis-a-vis impeachment. The Justice said this won’t count as a collateral attack.

Collateral Attacks, in this regard, are non-impeachment petitions that would in effect remove Sereno through a process other than impeachment. But the operative word here is “remove” and as explained earlier, there is no CJ Sereno to “remove” because there was never a Chief Justice Sereno, just an Associate Justice Sereno, at best.

Second, what makes the Chief Justice more special than the Chief Executive?

Referring to the Calida’s Quo Warranto petition, 1990 Bar Exam Topnotcher and Senator Koko Pimental said [Politiko]:

“Kasi nga sa pagbasa natin sa constitutional provision [on impeachment,] ang message that we get is that the only way to remove these high-ranking government officials, who are so-called impeachable officials, is to impeach, ‘di ba?”

For the reader’s reference, Article XI, Sections 2 and 3(1), of the 1987 Constitution states:

Section 2. The President, the Vice-President, the Members of the Supreme Court, the Members of the Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman may be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust. All other public officers and employees may be removed from office as provided by law, but not by impeachment.

Section 3. (1) The House of Representatives shall have the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment.

Now, I think the following are clear based on Sections 2 and 3(i):

That impeachable officials may be removed via impeachment
That the power to impeach is reserved solely for Congress

With these said, Article XI didn’t say that impeachment is the SOLE way to “remove” an impeachable official.

For example, suppose I said that I may entertain myself by watching a movie, that doesn’t necessarily mean that movies are the only things that entertain me. For example, I may also entertain myself by reading Vice-president Leni Robredo’s legendary quotes, or by watching videos of Senator Leila de Lima’s public meltdowns, and neither of them qualify as “watching a movie”.

VP LENI, "TINITIRA" NG "WELL OILED INFRASTRUCTURE" NA "KAUNTING PERCENTAGE LANG ANG TOTOONG TAO"

This will go down in...
Posted by Thinking Pinoy on Wednesday, March 21, 2018

More specifically, part of Rule 14 of the 2010 Rules of Presidential Electoral Tribunal [A.M. No. 10-4-29-SC] states:

"An election contest is initiated by the filing of an election protest or a petition for quo warranto against the President or Vice-President."

Thus, a quo warranto petition MAY BE FILED against a sitting president or vice-president, so what makes the Chief Justice so special?

The “quo warranto method” against impeachable executives is deemed constitutional via an “A.M.” or “Administrative Matter”, a document whipped up by the Supreme Court En Banc, so what prevents the Supreme Court En Banc from whipping up a similar A.M. that will apply to Supreme Court Justices?

I do not see any. That is, if a quo warranto petition may be filed against the President of the Philippines, then logic and the Equal Protection Clause essentially dictates that such a petition may also be filed against the Chief Justice.

Third, on computing the “prescriptive period”

Prescriptive periods are time limits that set forth the maximum period of time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated.

Rule 66, Sec. 11 of the Rules of Court states that Quo Warranto proceedings should commence “within one (1) year after the entry of the judgment establishing the petitioner’s right to the office in question”, so that Calida’s Quo Warranto petition should have been filed no later than 2013, as Sereno was appointed Chief Justice in 2012.

That is, the prescriptive period for Quo Warranto Petitions is one year from date of appointment.However, Act No. 3326 states that “Prescription shall begin to run from the day of the commission of the violation of the law, and if the same be not known at the time, from the discovery thereof and the institution of judicial proceeding for its investigation and punishment.”

Sereno was presumed to have complied with all the requirements for nomination, let alone appointment, as Chief Justice. Moreover, it was only during the late 2017 Impeachment Hearings in the House of Representatives that the Solicitor General discovered that she failed to file SALNs, a crucial requirement for nomination as CJ.

In the absence of any 2012 document from the Judicial and Bar Council exempting Sereno from the requirement and considering that the infraction was discovered less than one year ago, I think Calida’s petition will commence within the prescriptive period.

Imagine a hypothetical scenario where we found out that the Philippine President, who has been in position for over a year, is North Korean. Should the President be removed solely through impeachment because the prescriptive period is supposedly over? I do not think so.

It’s interesting to note that Calida’s Quo Warranto may end up nullifying Sereno’s CJ nomination, effectively nullifying President Aquino’s appointment of Sereno because Sereno’s name should not have been in the shortlist to begin with.

Fourth, “Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.”

The saying means those in positions of authority should avoid even the implication of impropriety, and it has been a guiding principle for Supreme Court decisions in as early as 1974’s Palang vs Zosa [GR No. L-38229], which states:

“Like Caesar's wife, a judge must not only be pure but beyond suspicion.”

In the 1997 administrative case Rabe vs Flores [A.M. No. P-97-1247], the Supreme Court dismissed court interpreter Delsa Flores because she failed to declare business interests in her SALN. The lowly court interpreter was dismissed because she failed to declare a specific business interest despite filing her SALN.

Surely, not filing one’s SALN is an offense worse than underdeclarations in a SALN. Moreover, a Supreme Court Chief Justice must be subjected to higher standards than court interpreters.

With that said, how can Sereno – one of the highest-ranking officials in the Judiciary – get away with dishonesty while a lowly court interpreter can’t?

I hope not, because that would be an injustice.

Fifth and finally, the Supreme Court as the Final Arbiter

Kabigting vs Director of Prisons [G.R. No. L-15548] states that "...the Supreme Court, being the court of last resort, is the final arbiter of all legal questions...", and that any legal issue related to the case shall be decided by the Supreme Court...

...and given that 8 out of 14 justices who shall decide on the Quo Warranto petition have testified against Sereno, I think the embattled Chief Justice's odds of winning the case is next to nil.

At the end of the day, it really pays to be kind to your peers. Too bad Sereno wasn't. [ThinkingPinoy]

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I am confident that President Rody Duterte will remain to be massively popular until his term ends. However, at the rate things are going, I regretfully predict that his international reputation in the West will be in tatters, given the Liberal Party's "excellent" working relationship with Western media and academia, thanks to its access to a massive international NGO network. Adding the fact that there's virtually no international counter-propaganda coming from the administration makes it all the worse.

We're almost midway through 2018, and I have doubts on whether there's enough time to implement charter change. The President himself said in December the Nation may not be ready for Federalism, saying it is not resonating in the Visayas and Mindanao. He also said Congress is apparently unwilling to make concessions so the Federal Constitution's development appears to be on a deadlock [Star].

While I seriously hope that Federalism pushes through, let us, for the meanwhile, consider a scenario where we're still under the unedited 1987 Constitution. That is, let’s assume that there'll be a 2022 Presidential Elections.

The 2022 Presidential Elections

I have reason to believe that the 2022 Presidential Elections will be fiercer than 2016's. I expect international political groups to channel massive funds to help the LP candidate win. While the Omnibus Election Code prohibits foreign funding, there are many very creative ways to get around this rule.

Just look at VP Leni Robredo, who received foreign funding during her 2013 Congressional Run [MT]. The case is still pending in the COMELEC, and it’s a gigantic enigma why it has been "parked” for so long. Is there practically no way she can be acquitted?

But we’re digressing. Let’s get back to the 2022 Elections.
In preparation for 2022, LP's perfect "Sales Pitch" could be "Help us prevent another Duterte!!!". Again, at the rate things are going, I'm pretty sure that the slogan will sell well among moneyed Westerners.

But then, I highly doubt though that any LP candidate will be popular enough locally to actually win the Presidency fair and square. But you know, LP has a track record of extreme creativity.

Remember Mar Roxas' futile attempt at persuading fellow presidential candidate Grace Poe to back out two days before the 2016 polls? Remember what has been happening in the VP electoral protest? The list goes on and on.

The Proto-Presidentiables

At the moment, I can see three potential presidentiables:

FIRST, Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte.

Inday Sara is a reluctant candidate. In a recent sortie in Macau, she said in a speech that she can't bear being away from her little kids so she won’t run for Senate and House in 2019. However, I think there's a slight possibility that she will run in 2022.

I was there in the venue, watching her speech, and I cheekily interrupted her when I said her kids would already be a bit grown up by 2022. Afterwards, I immediately asked her if she could run for President by then. She said, "Let's see."

I do not want to make too much out of it, but there's a bit of a possibility there. If President Duterte manages to stay massively popular until then, Inday may become a shoo-in successor because the people will likely want continuity.

The challenge, however, would be for her father to REMAIN EXTREMELY POPULAR nationwide. Though I personally think it’s unlikely, a massive drop in the President’s trust and satisfaction ratings in the last couple of years of his term could dash Inday’s chances.

Lastly, it's also important to forecast how many Duterte supporters will support a BBM presidency, i.e. the number that will not vote for Inday. Will Duterte's support base increase over the years that he's president? Only time will tell.

SECOND, former Senator Bongbong Marcos.

Despite not holding a cabinet position that would’ve helped him pave the way for a potential 2022 run, the former senator amazingly manages to stay relevant to the public through his electoral protest, currently being (mis)handled(?) by the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

So far, Marcos has managed to paint himself as the underdog in the protest. Truth be told, the major delays, the wet and burned ballots, the missing audit logs, and so much more really does make him appear to be the underdog in the Public Eye.

And you know, everybody loves underdogs.

Truth be told, the outcome of the protest has become immaterial. If he wins, then his camp and his supporters are happy, and he gains a valuable launching pad for 2022, i.e. the Vice-presidency. If he loses or if the case never gets resolved, he will be seen as the rightful vice-president who was cheated by the Liberal Party Machinery, giving his supporters major incentive to catapult him to the presidency.

The challenge to BBM's potential 2022 run is how he would expand his support base. Remember that while he received 14 million votes in 2016, many Marcos Loyalists are already of advanced age. That is, BBM has to find a way to appeal to the younger generation and possibly, find new allies who can help him get significant numbers of votes.

I guess it's one of the reasons why the Liberal Party, that has a sworn hatred for the Marcoses, actively does rounds in colleges and high schools: so that they can capture BBM's much-needed audience before BBM does.

Who shall I pick among the two?

Obviously, many of you will ask me who I would vote for. I will not answer that.

This is more of a thought experiment that should not be construed as pitting one camp against the other, a proclivity that a few supporters from both camps seemingly possess.

For all we know, both may not even run at all. Anything is possible, especially in light of the past two presidential elections, where runaway candidates won: Aquino via the sympathy vote because his mom died, and Duterte, via an unconventional campaign that captured the hearts and minds of millions, blitzkrieg-style.

Thus, there’s no point in fighting right now over who deserves what: there’s still four years left in Duterte’s Presidency and we don’t even know if he will last that long. For one, he even said in a closed-door meeting with journalists earlier this year that if he dies, it’s because of the CIA.

But I haven't mentioned the third presidentiable yet.

Third, Senator Bam Aquino.

As you may very well notice, I completely ignored the possibility that Vice-president Leni Robredo will attempt an “upgrade”. You see, I have reason to believe that there may be some significant LP factions that will oppose her candidacy.

Why? She has a proven track record of idiocy. She categorically is a dimwit. Besides, Robredo isn’t exactly very popular either, with her popularity ratings sharing the same level as VP Jojo Binay’s last two years in office, as shown in the image below.

Leni's Satisfaction Ratings in her first two years closely match Binay's ratings when the latter was already under heavy attack by the administration via the Makati Parking Building Scandal, among others.

Unless Robredo somehow finds a way to raise both her IQ and EQ by 50 points each over the next several months, I do not see how she can possibly become a viable opposition candidate for the 2022 presidency. Let’s go back to Bam, who faces significant challenges.

Bam Aquino is ranked 10-19 in the latest Senatorial Survey [Star]. If he’s not even popular enough to definitively get into the Senate’s Top 12, how in the world will he win the Presidency, which requires so much more?

In all honesty, I can see no other viable candidate among LP's ranks at the moment. That is, even if Bam may have a very slim chance at winning, he will still be forced to run because it would be thoroughly humiliating for LP to fail to field a candidate in a presidential race.

But then, I do not really know how Bam will reinvent himself to make him more likeable. Well, that's his problem. But I guess he no other choice but to try.

The 2022 Campaign

Barring the last-minute entry of another strong candidate, let’s imagine a scenario with Bam, BBM, and Inday.

There’s the problem of a potential head-to-head between BBM and Inday, which could split the votes of Duterte supporters, thereby opening the possibility of another Aquino Presidency. However, if Bam remains to be as unpopular as he is today, I doubt that it’ll happen. More so if he loses his 2019 re-election bid, which would deprive him of a major platform to stay relevant until 2022.

Now, assuming that Bam somehow gains a considerable level of popularity, then the possibility of Bam ending up as the runaway winner in BBM-Bam-Inday three-way becomes a significant possibility. With that said, one of the administration candidates may need to back out.

Inday, I think, is the most reluctant presidentiable. While I am not exactly privy to how she personally views the Marcoses, I think that her profound dislike for the yellows, along with the calling of family life, may be enough for her to back down. But then, Inday is notoriously incorrigible: after she has made up her mind, that’s it.

On the other hand, I think that the Marcoses are on some sort of quest for redemption. After being demonized for over three decades, whether justified or not, they appear to be hell-bent on redeeming their family name. I believe BBM has his eyes on 2022 and I have serious doubts that he would back down.

Bongbong is already 60 years old today, so he’ll be 65 by 2022. If he backs down, the next chance would be in 2028, i.e. when he’s 71. Moreover, many Marcos loyalists are already old, so there’s a risk that he may lose a large chunk of his support base if he defers his presidential ambitions.

But if BBM somehow decides that he can still defer his candidacy, then that’s it. After all, I do not know everything that’s in BBM’s mind.

Will it be Inday vs Bam, BBM vs Bam, Inday vs Bam vs BBM... or even Inday vs BBM?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Challenges for the winner

If Bam Aquino wins...

... then God Help Us.

If Bongbong Marcos wins...

...then he should expect an opposition that would be fiercer than the opposition that Pres. Duterte is facing today. Moreover, he will almost always be described as the "spitting image of his father, the Former Dictator..." and so on and so forth.

However, I think BBM understands propaganda and counter-propaganda way better than the current administration, so there's a pretty good chance that he'll be able to handle it. I think his team has learned from both from recent and the not-so-distant past to know how to handle these things.

If Inday Sara Duterte wins...

...then it will be her task to refurbish our image in the West. Inday is far more reserved and genteel than her father, and those qualities may help her accomplish the task.

Another challenge would be the depth of her bench, similar to her father's conundrum when he won in 2016. President Duterte knows and trust a very limited number of people so that completing his cabinet in time for his oath-taking was an arduous task. But it's also possible that she'll know and trust more people over the next four years.

But then again, remember that this is just a thought experiment. For all we know, some mayor from some far-flung city will suddenly surface in 2021 and capture the hearts and minds of millions of Filipinos, just like what Rodrigo Duterte did.

However, I sincerely doubt that there will be another Rodrigo Duterte: he’s in a league of his own. [ThinkingPinoy]

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Here's a rare feel-good ThinkingPinoyarticle. 😂😂😂

I attended the 20th Anniversary of Children's Joy Foundation, Inc. (CJFI), a shelter for children whose parents, in one way or another, cannot take care of their kids.

It's the same children's shelter that's helping the kid who was latched onto my leg to show his gratitude for the time I shared with him when I visited CJFI in 2016. The kid's mom has a mental issue while the dad was a victim of 2012's Typhoon Pablo. Pablo's strong winds blew away a roof and part of it hit the dad's stomach. The father, while now stable, is still healing from his wounds.

So I dropped by a children's home yesterday.

This kid is the youngest of four siblings, all of whom were sent to the...
Posted by RJ Nieto on Tuesday, December 6, 2016

But I'm digressing.

I told one of the CJFI administrators that I am really happy that they are helping these kids. If left alone, these kids would only be dreaming to survive for another day.

With the shelter's help, however, they gain the freedom to dream bigger, to become professional adults who can compete with those who had way better opportunities than they had.

It was a very happy event, as I discovered that CJFI wards from years back , who were so poor and helpless when they were still kids, have now become lawyers, accountants, teachers... they have become competent professionals who actually have a pretty good fighting chance in life.

I know the foundation helped them get through childhood, but I didn't know that they turned into magna cum laude graduates and CPA-Lawyers and Litigation Lawyers and whatnot.

I even told one of the administrators, "Wow, these kids who had so much less than I had when I was a kid are now far more accomplished than I am! Maybe you should adopt me at CGFI too! 😂"

Pastor Apollo Quiboloy founded CJFI. You can say what you want about him, but he's helping so many helpless kids not only in Mindanao but also around the world.

Did you know that they even built a school in Kenya that doubles as an amusement park? The pastor said he found kids from a Kenyan squatter colony who were using a shanty as a classroom, so he rented a building for them.

I may write a separate piece about the oft-misunderstood man. Meanwhile, let's talk about someone I met in the event.

Bumping into former NorthRail board member Isko Moreno

One of the guests in the event was Department of Social Welfare and Development Undersecretary Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso and I bumped into him while I was at the hotel lobby.

The ensuing conversation was fascinating, to say the least.

I asked him why he resigned from NorthRail just three months into his appointment.

I've heard rumors that the government-owned and -controlled corporation NorthRail is rife with corruption, so I can't help but give credence to the other rumor that he resigned from NorthRail because of what Pres.Rody Duterte calls "whiff of corruption".

His answer surprised me.

FIRST, he didn't disparage NorthRail. While I would've preferred that he dished out some juicy tidbits about the inner workings of this GOCC, I commend the undersecretary for his professionalism as he refrained from badmouthing what could be considered as his "former employer".

You see, HR professionals generally dislike applicants who openly lambast their former companies too much.
SECOND, he honestly said that he's not a very technical guy. He outrightly told me that he's no expert in finance and engineering. Afterwards and to my surprise, he said he resigned that early because he felt that the president should appoint someone who's more suited to the job than him because Filipinos deserve the best Public Service.

Well, I am talking to a relatively seasoned politician so I am not certain if he's just pulling my leg, but what he said is actually true and he speaks with an uncanny air of authenticity. I've spoken to a lot of politicians over the past couple of years, and I think I'm pretty good at judging when someone is lying.

I believe he wasn't. Moreover, the fact that the president appointed him to a higher position in a cabinet department is evidence enough for me to give him the benefit of the doubt.

DSWD Usec. Isko Moreno

And that leads us to the next question: I asked the undersecretary why he accepted the DSWD appointment.

He said helping the less fortunate has always been part of his advocacies. Well, there's nothing really surprising about that, as any politician would say the same.

What said next, however, suprised me again.

He said he lived in a squatter colony in Tondo, Manila for 18 years before he became an actor. He said he has experienced and endured similar, if not drastically worse, hardships that DSWD beneficiaries face.

He said an ideal DSWD official must have a deep understanding of the suffering of the poor, so that he can deliver the best service regardless of the challenges he'll face. He said understanding suffering cannot simply be taught in school: one has to experience it, feel it, see it.

And he experienced, felt, and seen suffering first hand, for 18 years, so he thinks that his appointment to DSWD is not just a responsibility, but a blessing.

Isko and his speech

So we went back to the conference hall to watch the ceremonies, where there was a series of speakers. I spoke first and he was scheduled to speak last.

During his turn to speak, he nonchalantly said he has a prepared English speech, but he's really bad in English so he'd rather deliver an impromptu speech in Tagalog.

That kind of self-deprecating honesty is rare in politicians, whose egos typically fill the Araneta Coliseum.

He pleasantly surprised me again.
He delivered an impromptu speech, in plain and fluent Tagalog, and I can confidently say that I can't speak Tagalog as well as he does, as effectively as he does.

There was a part where he said:

"Huwag kang umasang may mangyayaring kakaiba bukas kung ang ginawa mo ngayon ay katulad ng kahapon."

TRANSLATION: "Don't hope that something new will happen tomorrow if what you did today is the same as yesterday.".

I know that the idea is not exactly original, but his surprisingly poetic wording is. I tried to google that exact Tagalog sentence and I can't find anything.

Yeah, he came up with it himself.

Time to go home

Then it was time to go home, and I bumped into him again at the hotel lobby. This time, he was with his teenage son. He said his son tagged along and watched the CJFI Anniversary Ceremonies too.

I asked him why he brought his son there and how his son managed to evade death from boredom.He said he lived a tough life, but his son didn't. He said his son is very privileged. For that reason, he brings the kid to events like these so the child can learn about the lives of real Filipino kids who don't have a wealthy celebrity dad.

He said he doesn't want his son to suffer the same things he went through, but he also doesn't want him to be oblivious of the reality on the ground, and that's why the teen tagged along tonight.

And he said all these with a body language that does not, in any way, suggest deceit. Either he's a incredibly good liar, or he's just plain and brutally authentic.Judging from tonight's conversations, I feel that it's the latter.

I like this Isko guy a lot, so far.

And no, this not a paid post. I wrote this because I felt the need to tell it.

Oh! And that other guy is Jay Manalo. Yeah, I almost died.

That's freaking Jay Manalo!!! 🤭 [ThinkingPinoy]

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Senator Risa Hontiveros' Akbayan Partylist will be filing, through its Rep. Tom Villarin, impeachment cases against the eight associate justices who voted in favor of the the Quo Warranto Petition against Atty. Lourdes Sereno.

I'll tell you how it will backfire GLORIOUSLY.

We are talking about same Tom Villarin who served as Mar Roxas' right-hand guy during the latter's DILG stint. He also allegedly masterminded the #NasaanAngPangulo PR campaign, which attempted to pin all the blame over the Mamasapano Massacre to President Noynoy Aquino in order to protect Roxas' presidential ambitions.

The eight justices who voted in favor of the Quo Warranto Petition are:

Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro
Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza
Associate Justice Andres Reyes
Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo
Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta
Associate Justice Samuel Martires
Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin
Associate Justice Noel Tijam

Assuming that the 8 cases somehow magically hurdle the House of Representatives of the Philippines and all the justices somehow got convicted, then what we'll have is a VERY HILARIOUS SITUATION, at that would imply the following:

FIRST and most obviously, Duterte still chooses the prospective replacements.

A Supreme Court dominated by Duterte appointees, instead of happening in Q4 2019 or Q1 2020, may happen earlier because it's Pres. Rody Duterte who'll appoint their replacements.

That's so sad... for the Opposition.

SECOND, the dates of mandatory retirement aren't favorable to Villarin's plans.

Leonardo - De Castro will retire in 2018;
Martires, Tijam, Jardeleza, Bersamin in 2019;
Reyes in 2020;
Peralta in March 2022; and;
Gesmundo in 2026.

That is, the first six mentioned are about to retire anyway, as the first five may even retire prior to the conclusion of their corresponding impeachment trial, forcing the Senate to dismiss their cases for being moot and academic. In short, in as far as the composition of the SC is concerned, there's isn't much to fear vis-a-vis Akbayan's drama.

THIRD, Gesmundo's removal still means Duterte chooses his replacement.

Unless Akbayan has some intricate strategy to manipulate the JBC nomination process (something similar to, say, Sereno's clustering system), then Villarin's plan is but an exercise in futility because again, Duterte will appoint the prospective replacements.

FOURTH, Removing Peralta means more Duterte SC appointees.

Removing Peralta, meanwhile, will simply add to the number of Duterte appointees in the Supreme Court. It has already been anticipated in June 2016 and before Sereno's disqualification that based on the AJ's respective dates of retirement (they're required by law to retire at 70), there would be 10 Duterte appointees in 4Q 2019 and presumably beyond.

With Sereno's disqualification, there would be 11 Duterte appointees instead of 10.

Now, Peralta is supposed to retire March 2022 so a replacement may be considered an illegal midnight appointment. With a Peralta impeachment plus conviction, however, Peralta will leave the SC sooner so Duterte will be appointing 12... and there are only 15 justices in the SC.

Let's sum it up

IF VILLARIN'S IMPEACHMENT PLANS COMPLETELY PROSPER, THEN 12 OUT OF 15 SC JUSTICES WILL BE DUTERTE APPOINTEES, INSTEAD OF JUST 10.

The only ones that will be left in the current Supreme Court would be Associate Justices Marvic Leonen, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, and Benjamin Caguioa, all Aquino appointees. Note that Perlas-Bernabe is not an Aquino lapdog. She writes sober and logical decisions, so Akbayan and its overlord the Liberal Party cannot always rely on her.

And that's how Akbayan-LP's plan will gloriously backfire. Akbayan-LP's plan is poorly thought of and ill-advised, but I have always been aware that intelligence isn't exactly Akbayan-LP's strongest suit.

I mean, just look at their poster girl Senator Risa Hontiveros. [ThinkingPinoy]

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Here’s why I believe Health Secretary Francisco Duque must go.

In May 2018, Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque suddenly became a very vocal critic of his predecessor Janet Garin when he accused the latter of complicity in an 8.1-billion-peso school-based health center scam that Duque himself claimed to have discovered.

The “news” is shocking at first glance, but a little research shows that Duque is not telling everyone everything, and that’s what we’ll talk about. In this article, I will show you that Duque appears to be using the same strategy that our current Aquino-appointee Ombudsman is using.

What did Conchita do?

The July 2017 ThinkingPinoy article “Conchita's Trojan Horse: Weak Mamasapano cases to provide PNoy immunity?” detailed how Aquino-appointee Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales downgraded charges against the former president when she indicted Aquino only for usurpation of authority instead of homicide for the death of the 44 SAF troopers in Mamasapano, even if there is sufficient evidence to prove the latter, more serious offense.

Zooming forward to June 2018, Carpio-Morales again downgraded charges against PNoy in connection with multi-billion-peso Disbursement Acceleration Program scam when she merely indicted the latter with usurpation of legislative powers, an offense that’s punishable by only up to 6 years in prison.
Aquino and his cohorts have committed so many other wrongdoings during the past administration, but Carpio-Morales turned a blind eye on them.

I will not discuss these anymore because I think I have sufficiently illustrated that Carpio-Morales used her authority as the Ombudsman to protect her ally Aquino at the expense of Public Interest.

And Duque appears to be doing the same right now.

But first, let’s learn a little bit more about Health Secretary Francisco Duque.

Who is Francisco Duque?

Let’s list down the various major government positions that Health Secretary Francisco Duque held over the past couple of decades:

President and CEO of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) from 2001 to 2004.
Secretary of Health from 2005 to 2009
Chairman of the Civil Service Commission from 2010 to 2015
Consultant to Health Secretary Janet Garin from 2015 to 2016
GSIS Chairman in 2017
Secretary of Health (again) from 2017 to present

Duque, by all means, is a political survivor in that he managed to stay in power through appointive positions in three consecutive administrations: that of PGMA, PNOY, and PRRD.

And we all know “meritocracy” is rare, if not nearly non-existent, in Philippine Government.

Duque is a survivor.

Duque and Dengvaxia

Current Health Secretary Francisco Duque’s first major challenge was the Dengvaxia Scandal that erupted on 30 November 2017, after manufacturer Sanofi admitted a major drug defect that affects a significant but unknown number of vaccine recipients in the Philippines.

Instead of siding with the over 800,000 Filipino victims as expected from a public servant, Duque took an underhanded approach by not-so-subtly defending the vaccine when he said [MB]:

“For those who were not previously infected by the dengue virus, the analysis found that vaccination led to a benefit in preventing severe illness for at least 30 months. In the longer term, severe cases may occur following a subsequent dengue infection among those who were not previously infected.”

The problem here? The 30-month protective period isn’t back by sufficient empirical data, for the simple reason that the vaccine has not been in the mass market long enough to demonstrate such a protective period.

The protective period is interpolated at best, or completely hypothetical at worst. For example, the 63 bodies autopsied by the Public Attorney Office all passed away less than 30 months after their last Dengvaxia dose.

This is not to say that the supposed protective period is entirely fictional, but why would a Secretary of Health, instead of advocating for the victims, defend Big Pharma instead?

Duque not defending Big Pharma?

A deeper look shows that that Duque is not trying to save Big Pharma: he’s instead trying to save his own ass.

Duque was appointed to the Department of Health on 26 October 2017 [CNNph] to replace Paulyn Ubial, who was rejected by the Commission on Appointments.
That is, the botched Dengvaxia program still went on for a full month into Duque’s incumbency as Health Secretary despite:

The Dengvaxia Mass Immunization Program is already controversial within the Healthcare Community even before it was rolled out in April 2016.
There have been several attempts to halt its implementation, with Secretary Paulyn Ubial leading the charge.
The primary reason for Ubial’s CA rejection is her opposition to the Dengvaxia program.
And the primary reason why he got the DoH portfolio is Ubial’s rejection.

With these said, how in the world can Duque be so oblivious about the Dengvaxia issue, when the fact of the matter is that it’s the primary catalyst of his appointment to the Department of Health?

Again, political survival.

Duque and the Commission on Appointments

I initially tried to give Secretary Duque the benefit of the doubt because he was still up for CA confirmation at the time the Dengvaxia scandal broke. Well, I guess his strategy worked because his defense of the Sanofi and his aversion to attributing blame to the Aquino Administration easily earned him a CA nod in early February, with no less than Aquino ally Senator Risa Hontiveros advocating for his confirmation.

Again, I am not saying that he’s an Aquino ally. Instead, I’m saying that he’s a traditional politician whose primary goal is his own political survival.

After his CA confirmation, I expected Duque to take a tougher stance on the Dengvaxia Issue because there is virtually no risk of him losing his DoH post.

However, it has been four months since his confirmation and not even a single Department of Health official has been put under preventive suspension, a non-punitive measure that would have helped keep officials from unduly influencing the Dengvaxia investigations.

This is despite the fact that 99% of officials in the Health Department are holdovers from the past administration.

For example, Assistant Secretary Lyndon Lee-Suy, who is a pro-Dengvaxia advocate and has been in the department since the Aquino-era, is still freely roaming inside the Department of Health.

Instead of acknowledging this shortcoming, Duque had the gall to tell the public that disease outbreaks are possible because people complain about Dengvaxia [GMA].

Where’s Duque’s Logic?

At this point, many Filipinos are wont to think that Duque has lost his mind. My reading, however, is that his actions post-confirmation still makes a lot of sense with respect to his personal interest of political survival.

Duque is hedging. Hedging is a strategy to reduce risk by betting on two or more things at the same time instead of just one.

In this case, Duque is already confirmed and, despite his astounding incompetence, is still within the good graces of President Duterte. As far as I can see, Duterte will not replace him because the president himself said he fires people only on the grounds of corruption. That is, as long as Duque displays only incompetence and not corruption, he should be fine, just like most of the President’s communications team.

Duque’s primary concern, however, is what happens to him AFTER Duterte. He has been in appointive positions since 2001 and he has survived up to now. Now, what will help ensure his appointment to some juicy position in 2022 after Duterte steps down and somebody else takes over?

What if the opposition somehow snags the Presidency? For one, Duterte’s assassination is not impossible as the President himself floated the possibility when he said in April 2018 [AJ]:

“At least, if ever my airplane explodes, or if some roadside bomb explodes, maybe you can ask the CIA.”

In short, Duque’s defense of Dengvaxia is Duque’s defense of the past administration, which is currently the political opposition, whose nominal chairman is Vice President Leni Robredo.

And I think it’s reasonable to say that as Bongbong Marcos’s electoral protest reaches the finish line, the risk of a presidential assassination goes higher and higher.

And Duque, the political survivor, wants to survive a regime change.

Duque found a hairy ball

But to everyone’s surprise, Duque in late May 2018 went to the media with guns blazing, squarely blaming Garin for the multi-billion peso school-based health center scam. Many were impressed, but I wasn’t.

You see, the health center scam has already been reported on 25 December 2017 in the ThinkingPinoy article “#DengGate: Garin’s P4.8-billion botched, overpriced Health Center Project”. The article gained over a million reads and over 56,000 shares on Facebook alone.

Duque cannot claim to have no knowledge of that article because Duque himself went ballistic in a January 2018 PhilHealth Board Meeting when he said nobody should release PhilHealth documents to the public. Philhealth Insiders told me it was in direct reference to my article, which was replete with documents that could have been obtained only by PhilHealth employees.

Duque went on radio silence about the issue until the last several days of May 2018, when he apparently found the balls to take Garin head on.

But a bit of investigation shows that Duque, again, is hedging.

A highly-placed and unassailable source from the Department of Health informed me that only P1.2 of the P8.1-billion has been paid to the contractor as part of the mobilization costs. Mobilization costs are like the down payment that allows a contractor to commence with the project.

Meanwhile, the rest of the funds, amounting to P6.9 billion, is safely deposited in the Department of Health’s savings account at the Land Bank of the Philippines.

How Duque is doing a Carpio-Morales

Garin is faced with two major high-profile issues right now:

1. The Dengvaxia Scandal, which has been the subject of Senate Blue Ribbon Hearings. This scandal is deeply intertwined with the P10.6-billion PhilHealth Fund Scandal that was extensively outlined in "#DengGate: Dear Mr. President, here’s the memo you asked for"

2. The School-based Health Center Scandal, which will be subject to a new set of Senate Blue Ribbon Hearings chaired by Senator Gordon. This scandal is deeply intertwined with the P10.6-billion PhilHealth Fund Scandal that was extensively discussed in "#DengGate: PNoy, Garin, Abad, Padilla almost bankrupted PhilHealth".

As explained in “Garin’s P4.8-billion botched, overpriced Health Center Project”, the contract involved, while highly irregular, does not show direct traces of Garin’s exertion of undue influence for personal gain.

This is in stark contrast to the Dengvaxia Scandal, where Garin connived with several DoH officials to bend the rules, negotiate with Sanofi, and actively influence the government to buy the experimental anti-Dengue vaccine. This has been extensively discussed in the article “Leaked emails show Pnoy, Garin, Hartigan-Go intentionally bent rules for Sanofi”.

In short, Garin will most likely be indicted for the relatively minor crime of technical malversation for the Health Center Scam, as opposed to a potential plunder case stemming from the Dengvaxia Scam.

That is, Duque is hedging: he is grilling Garin for a lesser offense. He is effectively diverting public attention from the Dengvaxia issue where there’s already a preponderance of evidence, to a health center issue where Garin could only get a slap on the wrist at worst.

So it appears that Duque’s attack on Garin does not only make Duque look good in the administration’s eyes, but also to Garin’s because it shifts the attention away from the Dengvaxia issue.

Why’s Duque doing this again? Political survival.

And that is how Francisco is doing a Conchita.

And that, my friends, is the hallmark of a traditional politician. TraPos sometimes bend to public opinion, but Duque relies on appointments and not on elective posts. Hence, negative public opinion matters less to him, as he stays in power as long as he’s ok with the sitting president.

Faced with the biggest Public Health Crisis in recent history, with 64 deaths and counting, do we need a Health Secretary whose primary goal is Political Survival and not Public Safety?

I do not think so.

Mister President, please fire this idiot. [ThinkingPinoy]

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Highly-placed sources provided photos and information showing Robredo’s revisor for the vice-presidential electoral protest went with at least twenty other Supreme Court-Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) employees for an outing in a Laguna resort last month.

UPDATE 1 (12:42 PM. 09 Jul 2018): The writer just found out that in line with this development, the Marcos camp filed a "MANIFESTATION OF GRAVE CONCERN with EXTREMELY URGENT MOTION TO INVESTIGATE" this morning at the Supreme Court [GMANews].

PET revisors are Supreme Court employees tasked with verifying the contents of the ballot boxes involved in the recount in line with the VP electoral protest lodged by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos against Vice-president Leni Robredo.

Marcos and Robredo are allowed to appoint their own revisors to oversee the recount.
Screenshots from a Facebook post of a certain “Che Che”, who the source identified as PET Head Revisor Maria Katrin Rosales, showed at least 21 different individuals who were identified by the source as PET employees plus Robredo’s personal revisor in an outing in a resort in Pansol, Laguna.

The source said the outing took place on 22 June 2018.

(NOTE: The source said Rosales' posts were already deleted, but only after they have already been screen-capped by third parties including the source.)

PET Head Revisor Maria Katrin Rosales' Facebook Profile Page

One of Rosales' posts showing PET personnel with Robredo Revisor

It is illegal for PET employees to socialize and make friends with any party to a pending PET case.

Second source named names

Rosales uploaded a large number pictures and another highly-placed source, who also independently managed to download copies of the photos, managed to identify the persons in the said photos:

The second source identified the following as participants in the outing, based on the Facebook photos posted by PET Head Revisor Rosales:

Osmundo Abuyuan - Leni's Revisor
Hazel Magsipoc - PET Head Revisor
Mohammad Disomangcop - PET Head Revisor
Christine Enriquez - PET Head Revisor
Jennifer Pablo - PET Head Revisor
Julius Tumalad - Alternate Head Revisor
Noriesel Lalamunan - PET Head Revisor
Irene Canada - PET Head Revisor
Princess Bonetivo - PET Head Revisor
Hannah Medrano - PET Head Revisor
Maria Katron Rosales - PET Head Revisor
Ellaine Francisco - PET Appraiser
Keno Moraleda - Head PET Custodian
Martin Santos - PET Custodian
Edward Roque - PET Custodian
Bryan Puntero - PET Custodian
Elijah Mikaelson - PET Custodian
Rogene Agudelo - PET Custodian
Mel Darien Buensalido - PET Custodian
Reycard Castro - PET Chief Tabulator
Michaer Rebosura - PET Head Revisor

Third source identifies the resort

A third highly-placed source who was given access to resort records said the outing took place at a place named "3J's Resort" in Pansol Heights Subdivision, Pansol, Calamba, Laguna.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The source said the resort and its owners had no idea about the working relationship of the abovementioned guests so ThinkingPinoy hopes that the reader will bear no ill will against the establishment, its employees, or its owners. Actually, ThinkingPinoy may actually book that place for a family outing in the future.

The source provided a photo of the resort's calendar:

The photo shows a certain "Mel Darien" booked the property from 7:00 pm Friday, 22 June 2018, to 5:00 PM Saturday, 23 June 2018, i.e. an overnight stay.

The source identified this Mel Darien as PET Ballot Box Custodian Mel Darien Buensalido.

Based on this data, the seemingly inappropriate and quite lengthy outing indeed transpired in Pansol, Laguna.

Why does this matter?

The Code of Conduct for Court Personnel [A.M. No. 03-06-13-SC] prohibits "any act of impropriety that immeasurably affects... the people’s confidence in [the Judiciary]". Per Burgos v. Aquino [A.M. No. P-94-1081], this must include the behavior of court personnel as private individuals.

Clearly visible in almost all of the photos was Osmundo “Ritchie” Abuyuan, one of the revisors of Leni Robredo. Surely, a Robredo revisor being too chummy with PET employees in an out-of-town escapade erodes that confidence.

After all, how can we trust PET personnel to be fair in recounting the ballots when they're too friendly with one of the parties?

Here's a fair and honest question:
Is this seemingly overly close relationship between PET personnel and the Robredo Camp the reason why the PET revisors are TAKING SO DAMN LONG to count just one province? [ThinkingPinoy]

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