RELATIVES of 35 children whose deaths were linked to an anti-dengue vaccine are asking a lower court in Quezon City to inhibit from hearing their cases filed against former Department of Health officials.
Sumachen Dominguez, president of Samahan ng mga Magulang na Anak ay Biktima ng Dengvaxia, spearheaded the filing of a motion for voluntary inhibition against Branch 229 Judge Maria Luisa Lesle Gonzales-Betic.
The judge had granted the motion to quash filed by former Health Secretary Janette Garin, now Iloilo representative, and four other co-accused.
The court ordered that the 35 Dengvaxia-related cases pending before Gonzales-Betic’s sala be consolidated into one case.
“The 35 cases involved 35 children who died on separate occasions and different places, and were inoculated on separate dates,” Dominguez told reporters.
The group said the court order was contrary to the directive of the Supreme Court to separately litigate the cases under one family court.
In granting the motion to quash filed by the respondents, Gonzales-Betic ruled that “only one information shall be filed regardless of the number or severity of the consequences of the imprudent or negligent act.”
The Public Attorney’s Office assisted the parents in the filing of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide against Garin and 90 others with the Department of Justice.
From 2016 until 2017, the DOH implemented a massive vaccination of students in public schools against dengue infection.
In November 2017, the vaccine manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur Inc., said those who had received the Dengvaxia vaccine without prior dengue infection could be vulnerable to more severe infections.