CRIMINAL charges were filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday against 35 current and former health department officials and executives of the manufacturer and supplier of the controversial anti-dengue Dengvaxia vaccine by families of four schoolchildren who reportedly died after being given shots of the vaccine.
The complainants, through the assistance of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), named former Health Secretary Janette L. Garin on top of the respondents.
Garin and the rest of the respondents were specifically charged with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code and Violation of Republic Act 9745 (Anti-Torture Act).
The complaints were filed by the families of Aejay Bautista, 11; Angelica Pestilos, 10; Lenard Baldonado, 10 and Zandro Colite, 11.
The PAO has been tasked by the DOJ to conduct fact-finding probe and build up cases on criminal liabilities of government personnel and private individuals for the deaths.
The PAO filed the charges after its forensic teams established that all four victims died of organ failures that could be attributed to the vaccine.
Other respondents in the complaint are nine other health department officials, Dr. Vicente Belizario Jr., Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Dr. Gerardo Bayugo, Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, Dr. Irma Asuncion, Dr. Julius Lecciones, Dr. Joyce Ducusin, Rosalind Vianzon and Mario Baquilod, along with Drs. Socorro Lupisan and Maria Rosario Capeding of the Research Institute for
Tropical Medicine.