THE Department of Justice on Friday ordered complainants—Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption and the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution, Inc.—to provide the prosecutors the required information, such as the addresses of all the respondents, in their criminal complaint filed against former President Benigno Aquino III and other former officials implicated in the Dengvaxia mess.
During the clarificatory hearing, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Rossane Balauag gave the complainants until April 20 to submit the names and addresses of all the respondents, which include among others former Health secretary Janette Garin and former Budget secretary Florencio Abad.
The investigating prosecutors scolded the lawyers of the complainants led by lawyer Manuelito Luna for failure to submit the addresses of the respondents which they failed to include in their original complaint.
According to Balauag, they have yet to decide on whether a summon will be sent to Aquino and the other respondents since what transpired Friday was not yet a preliminary investigation.
“The panel would first evaluate the documents to be submitted by the VACC and VPCI. It is only after these have been submitted will the panel decide if the respondents would be subpoenaed,” Balauag stressed.
Complainants also requested the DoJ prosecutors to include as respondents the 20 members of the board of directors of the Dengvaxia manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur and the 20 members of the board of directors of its local distributor Zuellig Pharma.
But the prosecutors said complainants should have included the names and addresses of board of directors from Sanofi and Zuellig Pharma.
The prosecutors also denied the request of the complainant to subpoena documents from seven government agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health, Children’s Hospital in connection with their investigation related to Dengvaxia.
“The panel does not collect documents for you,” Balauag quipped.
This prompted Luna to withdrew their request for the subpoena of documents since “we already have them in our possession.”
Meanwhile, the DoJ prosecutors clarified that Aquino and his co-respondents had not yet been issued subpoenas, refuting earlier reports that the respondents had been subpoenaed to attend yesterday’s proceedings.
Balauag, who chairs the DOJ panel, stressed that they would first have to evaluate the documents the VACC and the VPCI would submit before deciding if the respondents would be summoned.
After the hearing, Luna denied the deficiencies in their complaint were a sign of the “weakness” of their case against Aquino and other respondents.
“It’s a matter of legal technique. It’s a tactic on our part and we were successful in Comelec; there’s no reason why we could not cause the issuance of subpoena here now that we have all the documents in our possession. So let us not draw conclusions yet,” Luna stressed.
The complainants accused Aquino, Garin, Abad and several other officials of committing multiple homicide and physical injuries through criminal negligence, graft, technical malversation, and violation of the procurement law for the purchase of Dengvaxia.
The VACC has also filed a complaint against Aquino, Garin and other officials for alleged violation of the election law when they released government funds for the purchase of the anti-dengue vaccine within a number of days before the 2016 election period.