MANILA, Philippines – Incumbent and former agriculture officials, food and drug officials, and company executives face graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman over alleged anomalies on the import and conduct of field tests of Vietnam-made AVAC vaccines developed to prevent and control African swine fever (ASF).

Journalist Fermin Diaz filed the case on Wednesday, August 21, with the Ombudsman, saying in his complaint that officials from the Department of Agriculture (DA), Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as executives of KPP Powers Commodities (KPP), “connived to illegally import, conduct tests, and seek product registration of the ASF vaccine.”

In a bid to contain ASF, the Philippine government imported AVAC vaccines and conducted trials. The Vietnam-made vaccine is the first commercially available ASF vaccine in the world. KPP is the supplier.

This was the subject of a Senate hearing in October last year, when senators grilled concerned government officials for allegedly giving free rein to KPP to run clinical trials, resulting in the unauthorized sale of the vaccines.

In the complaint, Diaz said KPP CEO Pinky Tobiano, managing director Juan Carlos Robles, and general manager Noreen Geronimo “sought the help” of former DA undersecretary Domingo Panganiban and former BAI director Paul Imson to bring the vaccine in the Philippines.

The executives, together with Imson and then assistant director Arlene Asteria Vytiaco, “usurped” the power and authority of the FDA and “avoided to seek clearance from the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines, to import, test, and do research on the AVAC ASF vaccine.”

Aside from bypassing clearance, Diaz alleged in his complaint that FDA, BAI, and KPP “colluded to ignore” the biosafety issue regarding a gene-altered virus used in the vaccine.

Diaz is the subject of a cyber libel case that KPP filed against his story published in August 2023. Rappler has since published a follow-up story with KPP’s statement. Diaz’s case is pending at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 90.

Rappler sought comment from KPP’s legal counsel but has yet to receive a response as of writing. We will update this story once their camp responds.

Respondents to the case include Panganiban, Imson, Vytiaco, Tobiano, Robles, Geronimo, as well as DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., DA Assistant Secretary Dante Palabrica, FDA’s Samuel Zacate, Oscar Gutierrez, Jesusa Joyce Cirunay, veterinarian Maximo Montenegro, and lawyer Reynaldo Robles.

Gov’t continues to look for vaccines

Currently, the government has ordered 10,000 doses of AVAC vaccines under emergency procurement. These are to be used for controlled trials. According to Palabrica, who is concurrent officer-in-charge in BAI, these doses are under FDA’s monitored release.

“There is no malice because that was approved by the FDA for monitored release,” Palabrica told Rappler in a phone call on Thursday, August 22.

Aside from the AVAC vaccine, Palabrica said they are now looking at four other ASF vaccines from the United States, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam (another brand apart from AVAC).

Palabrica emphasized that the BAI had been working on the rules of engagement with FDA regarding regulatory jurisdiction over veterinary products — a sore point raised in the complaint and the Senate hearing last October.

“Yesterday, we went to FDA. We arranged again the rules of engagement that all [vaccines] will be going through the BAI to test it,” said Palabrica.

“Then after testing it, it will go to FDA for approval. That’s the memorandum of agreement between BAI and FDA.”

Palabrica said testing of vaccines may last from six months to a year before they are subject for FDA’s approval. – Rappler.com

(Quotes in Filipino were translated into English for brevity.)