MANILA, Philippines — Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio and anti-corruption advocate Diego Magpantay have asked the Office of the Ombudsman to look into the bank records of former president Benigno Aquino III and three of his Cabinet secretaries for possible ill-gotten wealth in connection with the controversial P3.5-billion dengue mass vaccination program.

In a forum in Quezon City yesterday, Topacio, lawyer of Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, said he and Magpantay of Citizens Crime Watch filed a petition before the ombudsman last Friday calling for investigation of the bank transaction records of Aquino, former Department of Health (DOH) secretary Janette Garin, former executive secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and former Budget secretary Florencio Abad, as well as other former and incumbent officials of the DOH.

“(We’re also asking the Ombudsman) to preventively suspend DOH officials who are respondents in the case (and) are still occupying high-ranking positions in the (department),” Topacio said.

Topacio said they filed the petition in order to bolster the plunder complaint that he and Magpantay filed last May against Aquino, Garin, Abad, Ochoa and 18 incumbent and former officials of the DOH before the ombudsman.

“We are requesting the ombudsman to conduct or to order a bank investigation because that is the only way that we can establish plunder or the illegal amassing of wealth of at least P50 million,” Topacio pointed out in a follow up phone interview with The STAR.

“We are private individuals. We don’t have the power to examine bank accounts because of the Bank Secrecy Law,” he added.

Topacio noted that under the Office of the Ombudsman Charter or Republic Act 6770, the agency has the power to order the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to investigate the bank transactions of any former or incumbent government official.

“The AMLC has the power under the Anti-Money Laundering Act in certain cases like kidnap-for-ransom, drug trafficking, plunder and graft and corruption, to examine the bank accounts either by itself in certain cases or upon the order of the courts or of the ombudsman,” he said.

Topacio had earlier clarified that he and Magpantay filed the plunder complaint in their capacity as private individual-taxpayers.

Topacio and Magpantay said the respondents must be investigated for plunder for allegedly using their positions to unjustly enrich themselves with government funds in the guise of the DOH’s P3.5-billion immunization program.

The complaint stemmed from the Aquino administration’s purchase of Dengvaxia dengue vaccines manufactured by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur, distributed locally by Zuellig Pharma.

The vaccines were administered to about 800,000 public school students aged nine years old and above in the National Capital Region, Region 3 and Region 4-A starting in April 2016.

Former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director general Augusto Syjuco Jr. in December last year also filed a plunder complaint against Aquino and Garin before the ombudsman in connection with the Dengvaxia procurement.

In the same month, women’s advocate party-list group Gabriela filed a graft complaint against Aquino, Garin and Ochoa, still in connection with the supposed anomaly.

Just like Syjuco and Gabriela, Topacio and Magpantay allege that Aquino and his Cabinet secretaries conspired in purchasing the vaccines in 2015 even when there was no comprehensive study on the efficacy and risks of the drug.

Topacio and Magpantay added that the release of the fund for Dengvaxia was anomalous as the purchase was not listed in the 2015 General Appropriations Act.

Topacio and Magpantay questioned the supposed haste in the Food and Drugs Administration’s grant of Certificate of Product Registration for Dengvaxia even when the third phase of the clinical trial for the drug had yet to be completed.

They also questioned Garin’s grant of certificate of exemption to Philippine Children’s Medical Center, which gave the latter the go-signal to purchase the drugs from Sanofi.

Topacio and Magpantay said Aquino must be held accountable for allowing the purchase despite supposed violations of several rules.