Palace to public: Give Ona a ‘fair shake’

Malacañang on Tuesday asked the public to give Health Secretary Enrique Ona, who is being linked to irregularities in the country's immunization program, the benefit of the doubt, saying President Benigno Aquino III has yet to decide on his fate.

At a press briefing, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Aquino's decision will be based on the answers Ona will submit regarding the accusations being hurled against him when the official returns from his one-month leave.

“It would depend on his answers to the questions propounded by the President as the President himself mentioned he had questions on a particular issue on the vaccine,” Valte said.

She added that Ona “has asked for a month to gather answers to the questions that have been propounded to him.”

“So let’s give him a fair shake,” Valte said, noting that the investigation being conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) does not mean Aquino has lost his trust on Ona.

“Hindi siya sign of doubt. If you recall this is not the first time the President asked an investigation, not specifically on the person but on a particular incident,” she said.

“The President just wanted to ascertain that all facts at hand are in and not out there and missing,” Valte added.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Monday that the NBI has been investigating the Department of Health's purchase of expensive vaccines in 2012 since June.

Valte said Aquino still considers Ona as innocent. “The presumption applies to everyone, every Filipino. That is not a policy set up by the President, that is a policy set up by the Constitution.”

She also reiterated that it was not the President who asked Ona to take a leave.

“It was Secretary Ona who asked for time to be able to answer the questions asked by the President and, given that there are other tasks necessary to running the Department of Health. He wanted perhaps to devote time to be able to answer the questions,” she said.

Ona went on leave early November to prepare his explanation regarding the issues surrounding the country's immunization program.

Asked if it was Aquino who ordered the Department of Justice and NBI go probe the DOH, Valte said De Lima had mentioned that she received instructions from the President. Valte said she was not aware of the extent of the instructions. —KBK, GMA News