Former Health Secretary Janette Garin has denied liability in the second batch of criminal complaints filed against her before the Department of Justice arising from the deaths of schoolchildren inoculated with the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine.
Garin appeared before the DOJ ahead of the 2 pm preliminary investigation hearing presided over by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Susan Dacanay and submitted her counter-affidavit on the second batch of Dengvaxia cases filed by parents and guardians of eight victims.
The former health secretary sought the dismissal for lack of evidence the charges of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide under the Revised Penal Code and violations of Anti-Torture Act and Consumer Act over the deaths of Clarissa Alcantara, Christine Mae De Guzman, Erico Leabres, Roshaine Cariño, Naomi Nimura, John Paul Rafael, Michael Tablate and Christine Joy Asuncion.
Just like in the first batch of cases involving nine victims, Garin asked the DOJ to dismiss the complaints filed by the parents through the assistance of the Public Attorney’s Office for lack of probable cause and for insufficiency of evidence.
“The elements of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide do not exist in the present case,” the respondent said in her 29-page answer.
“Acts and /or omissions being imputed against me have absolutely no relevant connection to the deaths of the children whom the complainants and the PAO Report and Recommendation claimed to have been inoculated with Dengvaxia,” she stressed.
According to her, she cannot be held liable because the procurement of Dengvaxia underwent thorough process and that its supposed “theoretical” risks were not yet supported by any data at the time of its implementation.
Garin also stressed the DoH also issued clear and specific guidelines for the implementation of the school-based immunization program, contrary to PAO’s claim that the DOH during her term failed to conduct proper screening of Dengvaxia recipients and other relevant tests to determine whether the children may be inoculated with the vaccine.
She branded as “malicious, twisted and baseless” the allegation in the complaints that she failed to inform the public of the dangers and risks related to the vaccine.
The investigating panel chaired by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Susan Dacanay set the next hearing on Nov. 15 for submission of reply of complainants to the answer of Garin.
Meanwhile, PAO chief Persida Rueda – Acosta disclosed their plan to upgrade the charges from reckless imprudence resulting in homicide to murder.
“We are studying if we can move to upgrade the charges to murder because we found out that they (respondents) were aware of the fact that Dengvaxia could lead to death. This is not just negligence, but rather murder,” Acosta said, in an interview with reporters after the hearing.
“They made the schoolchildren guinea pigs… You could see the intention (to kill) because they knew from the start that the vaccine could lead to death and still they proceeded with it,” Acosta added.
The PAO chief said she gave their panel of lawyers handling the Dengvaxia cases one week to study this proposal.
The complainants accused Garin and 37 other respondents 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 cited the failure of the DOH under Garin 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.
The complainants 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.
A third batch involving 10 deaths – Wiljen Alcontin, Eleazar Brigoli Jr., Trishanne Asona, EJ Christian Apa, Joaniña Cortes, Gladimeir Juevesano, Kianah Mae Racuya, Adeline Castroverde, Jessica Viaros and Senior Police Officer 2 Vicente Arugay – was filed against Garin and company last week.
The PAO, which was tasked by the Department of Justice to conduct fact-finding investigation and has build up on Dengavaxia cases, has so far documented at least 96 deaths from the controversial vaccine approved and implemented during the previous administration.