Former Health Secretary Janette Garin did not show up during the preliminary investigation of the Department of Justice on Monday on the second batch of criminal complaints over the deaths of schoolchildren inoculated with the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine.
The DOJ’s panel of prosecutors led by Senior Assistant Prosecutor Susan Dacanay earlier summoned Garin to submit her answer to charges filed by parents and guardians of eight more victims, but she did not attend the hearing.
In a text message, the former Department of Health chief claimed that she was not notified of the hearing schedule. However, 23 of the 37 respondents were able to appear in the hearing and submitted their counter-affidavits.
This prompted the DOJ panel to give Garin and 13 other respondents more time to file their answer on charges of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide under the Revised Penal Code and violations of Anti-Torture Act and Consumer Act and appear in the next hearing set for Nov. 5.
The complainants accused Garin and others of negligence through “arbitrarily, maliciously, and deliberately failure to inform the Dengvaxia recipients and their parents/families of the dangers and risks related to Dengvaxia and to obtain their informed consent.”
They said that the DOH under Garin failed to conduct proper screening of Dengvaxia recipients and to implement active and aggressive monitoring and surveillance over the recipients considering the risks posed by the vaccine to seronegative recipients or those who had no history of dengue.
They said the respondents “displayed grave recklessness, utter bad faith, lack of foresight, lack of skill, want of care, gross neglect and deliberate, arbitrary and even malicious disregard of the safety and lives of thousands of Filipino children.”
The DOJ, through a separate panel chaired by Assistant State Prosecutor Maria Emilia Victorio, already concluded the PI for the first batch of complaints involving nine victims – Aejay Bautista, Angelica Pestilos, Lenard Baldonado, Zandro Colite, Abbie Hedia, Jansyn Bataan, Mark Axel Ebonia, Rey Justin Almagno and Alexander Jaime.
PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta said they would file another set of more than 10 complaints today, October 30.
The PAO, which was tasked by the Department of Justice to conduct fact-finding investigation and build-up on Dengavaxia cases, has so far documented at least 94 deaths from the controversial vaccine approved and implemented during the previous administration.