THE Department of Justice (DOJ) is set to start its preliminary investigation on May 15 on criminal charges filed against former Health Secretary Janette Garin and health officials filed by families of children who may have died due to a vaccine sold to the government by Sanofi Pasteur Ltd.
Garin and her corespondents have been summoned to appear before the investigating panel chairman, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Rossane Balauag, and answer the complaints filed by the families of the alleged victims forced to take the vaccine Dengvaxia.
Also directed to show up in today’s hearing was incumbent Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco T. Duque III who is also a respondent in the case.
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.
The case stemmed from 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 allegedly due to multiple organ failure after getting Dengvaxia shots.
The complainants sought Garin and 34 others—including executives and officers of manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur and distributor Zuellig Pharma Corp.
Duque was named by respondents in the cases of Bataan and Hedia because it was during his tenure in the DOH when the two victims died. Bataan died in January, while Hedia died in February.
The complainants are being represented by the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) headed by lawyer Persida Acosta. 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 inoculated with Dengvaxia and also for issuing orders that further prevented PAO from effectively investigating the cases of deaths.
Named respondents along with Garin are other DOH officials, including physicians Vicente Belizario Jr., Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Gerardo Bayugo, Lyndon Lee Suy, Irma Asuncion, Julius Lecciones and Joyce Ducusin. Other respondents named were 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.
Apart from the criminal complaints, the PAO has already filed several civil suits before the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City.
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 antidengue vaccine so far.
Apart from the complaints filed by PAO, the same DOJ panel will also hear today the complaint filed anticorruption groups Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution Inc. in February that included former President Benigno S. Aquino III and former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad as respondents.
Aquino and Abad were also required to appear in today’s hearing and submit their counter-affidavits.
The VACC complaint involved charges of multiple homicide and physical injuries under the Revised Penal Code, malversation of public funds and violations of Republic Act 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) and RA 9184 (Government Procurement Reform Act).