Former Department of Health (DOH) secretaries and medical experts have welcomed the recent decision of a Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) dismissing the Dengvaxia cases against past Health Secretary Janette Garin and other doctors for lack of sufficient evidence.
“We are pleased and very thankful to note the decision of the QC-RTC. This was the state of how the justice system works – haphazard accusations without real fact-checking and believing non-experts,” Doctors for Truth and Public Welfare (DTPW) convenor Dr. Minguita Padilla said in a statement.
“The prosecution and its supoosed star witnesses, Dr. Clarito Cairo, Dr. Tony Leachon, and Dr. Erwin Erfe, could not cite any concrete evidence that came with the hasty accusations. They misrepresented themselves as experts in the trial and their testimonies were declared inadmissible,” she added.
According to the decision of RTC Branch 229, penned by Presiding Judge Cleto R. Villacorta III, the prosecution’s witnesses were not real experts to offer an opinion on Dengvaxia that resulted in the dismissal of the cases: “Expert witnesses have a special duty to the court to provide fair, objective, and non-partisan assistance.”
The RTC said an expert opinion, to be admissible as evidence, must come from a credible expert who has special knowledge, skill, or training; it must be derived using sound “scientific” principles and methodology, not based on hearsay.
Meanwhile, former Health Secretary Dr. Esperanza Cabral, convenor of DTPW, pointed out damage caused by false allegations included the erosion of trust in Philippine public health, which has likely led to preventable deaths and illnesses if the people have not rejected vaccinations.
“All these accusations were based on misinformation and had politicized the noble intent of public health,” Cabral said.
