A Quezon City court has set the arraignment of ex-health secretary Janette Garin, now Iloilo representative, and other co-respondents in the fresh 34 Dengvaxia-related cases filed against them on Oct. 2.
Branch 229 Judge Maria Luisa Lesle Gonzales-Betic gave the prosecutors to file a comment to the motion to quash information filed by the lawyers of the respondents.
The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) said the lower court is also giving the defense lawyers to reply in five days after the filing of the prosecution’s comment.
Court sources said Garin was at the courtroom last Sept. 4 supposedly for an arraignment, but the court had to reset the date to October 2.
The new 34 cases were earlier filed with the different metropolitan trial courts that had been dismissed lack of jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court, in a previous resolution, directed the filing of all Dengvaxia-related cases with the Quezon City family court.
Gonzales-Betic’s court is the same venue handling the first batch of Dengvaxia cases filed by eight parents of schoolchildren whose deaths were linked to the anti-dengue vaccine in 2016 until 2017.
PAO chief Persida Acosta, along with Dr. Erwin Erfe, PAO forensics chief, clarified that the new cases were separate from the over 160 Dengvaxia cases filed by against Garin and the other accused.
Garin and her co-accused argued that Quezon City had no jurisdiction over the reckless imprudence resulting in homicide filed against them.
But the High Court maintained its decision, ordering the transfer of the Dengvaxia cases from the municipal trial courts to the Quezon City court.