The Public Attorney’s Office on Monday urged the Supreme Court to form special courts to handle criminal and civil cases arising from the deaths of school children inoculated with the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine.
PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta said that they have formally asked the SC to assign two trial courts to specifically hear criminal and civil cases, respectively, borne out of Dengvaxia controversy.
“We have already submitted to the Supreme Court our request in writing. We hope the Supreme Court will act favorably on our request that will expedite the resolution of cases filed by families of victims,” Acosta said in an interview after preliminary investigation hearing at the Department of Justice.
Reports had said that over 80,000 school children or 10 percent of over 800,000 have died after being inoculated with Dengvaxia.
The PAO chief called on the SC to immediately act on the request, citing the lack of significant progress in the first civil case filed by several families before the Quezon City regional trial court since the judge handling it is already up for retirement.