Former Health secretary Janette Garin and 36 others are facing three more criminal cases before the Justice department arising from the deaths of schoolchildren inoculated with the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine.
The families of Clarissa Alcantara, Erico Leabres, and Christine Mae de Guzman on Thursday filed complaints for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide against Garin and other Health officials and executives of manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur Inc. and its distributor Zuellig Pharma Corp.
Assisted by lawyers from the Public Attorney’s Office, the parents of the three victims”•Alcantara, 12, from Aurora; Leabres, 10, from Nueva Ecija; and De Guzman, 10, from Bataan, claimed that their children died after being inoculated with the Dengvaxia vaccine.
The Public Attorney’s Office has been tasked by the Justice department to conduct an investigation and a case buildup on the Dengvaxia controversy.
The latest cases brought to 15 the number of criminal cases filed so far against Garin and the other respondents before the Justice department as the PAO had already documented over 80 cases of deaths from the vaccine.
As in the previous cases, the latest complaint accuses Garin and the others of negligence as a result of their “failure to inform the Dengvaxia recipients and their parents/families of the dangers and risks related to Dengvaxia and to obtain their informed consent.”
The complaints accused the Justice department during the stint of Garin to conduct a proper screening of the Dengvaxia recipients and to monitor the recipients considering the risks posed by the vaccine to seronegative recipients or those who had no history of dengue.
The PAO earlier filed 12 cases involving the deaths of victims Aejay Bautista, Angelica Pestilos, Lenard Baldonado, Zandro Colite, Abbie Hedia, Jansyn Bataan, Mark Axel Ebonia, Rey Justin Almagno, Alexander Jaime, Naomi Nimura, Michael Tablate and John Paul Rafael.
Garin and the other respondent have already denied the charges and sought their dismissal.