DOJ probes raps vs Garin, others over Dengvaxia today

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) is set to start today its preliminary investigation on criminal charges against former Department of Health (DOH) secretary Janette Garin and other incumbent and former health officials, filed by families of students who died allegedly after being inoculated with the controversial anti-dengue Dengvaxia vaccine.

The investigating DOJ panel chaired by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Rossane Balauag has summoned Garin and other respondents – including incumbent Health Secretary Francisco Duque III – to appear at the hearing and answer the complaints filed by families of at least nine victims.

They were specifically required to submit their counter-affidavits on charges of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide and obstruction of justice under the Revised Penal Code (RPC).

Summons were received by the parties last week.

The nine separate complaints were filed by parents of Aejay Bautista, Angelica Pestilos, Lenard Baldonado, Zandro Colite, Abbie Hedia, Jansyn Bataan, Mark Axel Ebonia, Rey Justin Almagno and Alexander Jaime – all schoolchildren who died due to multiple organ failure allegedly after getting Dengvaxia shots. 

Through the assistance of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), they sought the indictment of Garin and 34 others, including executives and officers of Dengvaxia manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur Inc. and distributor Zuellig Pharma Corp.

Duque was named respondent in the cases of Bataan and Hedia because it was during his tenure at the DOH when the two victims died. Bataan died last January while Hedia succumbed to multiple organ failure last February.

A separate charge of obstruction of justice was also filed against the incumbent DOH chief for his supposed refusal to share the master list of children innoculated with Dengvaxia and also for issuing orders that further prevented PAO from effectively investigating the deaths.

Named respondents along with Garin are nine other DOH officials –physicians Vicente Belizario Jr., Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Gerardo Bayugo, Lyndon Lee Suy, Irma Asuncion, Julius Lecciones, Joyce Ducusin and Rosalind Vianzon and Mario Baquilod, along with physicians Socorro Lupisan and Maria Rosario Capeding of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

The executives of Sanofi named in the complaints are Carlito Realuyo, Sanislas Camart, Jean Louis Grunwald, Jean-Francois Vacherand, Conchita Santos, Jazel Anne Calvo, Pearl Grace Cabali and Marie Esther de Antoni.

The officers of Zuellig in the charge sheet, on the other hand, are Kasigod Jamias, Michael Becker, Ricardo Romulo, Imran Babar Chugtai, Raymund Azurin, Nilo Badiola, John Stokes Davison, Marc Franck, Ashley Gerard Antonio, Ana Liza Peralta, Rosa Maria Chua, Danilo Cahoy, Manuel Concio III, Roland Goco and Ma. Visitacion Barreiro.  

The PAO, which was tapped by the DOJ to conduct fact-finding investigation and build cases against those liable for the Dengvaxia anomaly, has documented 47 deaths allegedly caused by the anti-dengue vaccine so far.    

Apart from the complaints filed by PAO, the same DOJ panel will also hear today the complaint filed by anti-corruption groups Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution Inc. last February that included former president Benigno Aquino III and former budget secretary Florencio Abad as respondents. 

Aquino and Abad were also required to appear at today’s hearing and submit their counter-affidavits.