Parents of school children who allegedly died due to Dengvaxia vaccination on Sunday denied the dismissal of criminal, civil and administrative suits filed with the Quezon City courts and the Sandiganbayan against ex-Department of Health chief Janette Garin and several medical doctors.
Sumachen Dominguez, president of the Samahan ng mga Magulang, Anak at Biktima ng Dengvaxia (SMABD), asserted that the cases were still pending, while the Office of the Solicitor General sought a reopening of eight Dengvaxia-related charges dismissed by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court.
She clarified that Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra had filed petitions for review on certiorari before the Court of Appeals, questioning the cases’ dismissal.
“The fight is not yet over. We will not give up,” she said.
“We avoid to say anything (about it) on social media since the cases are already at the proper venues,” she added.
She lauded Supreme Court’s Assistant Court Administrator Lilian Barribal-Co for ordering the QCRTC-Branch 102 to set a pre-trial conference on the 35 other Dengvaxia cases.
Out of the 100 criminal complaints, 82 of them were already resolved by the Department of Justice for filing, while 18 others already dismissed had been the subject of petitions for review, Co noted.
On the other hand, the counterpart civil cases of the 169 criminal cases, 158 of them were already filed before the QCRTC-Branch 226 Judge Manuel Sta. Cruz, the SMABD said.
The group clarified that the criminal case filed before the Sandiganbayan by the National Bureau of Investigation was still pending trial after the anti-graft court’s denial of a motion to quash filed by Garin and the other respondents.
Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio also filed a complaint against Garin before the Office of the Ombudsman that ordered the filing of the case at the Sandiganbayan for the procurement of P3.5 billion worth of Dengvaxia vaccines in 2015 for a school-based immunization program.