The Public Attorney’s Office on Monday disclosed the filing of more Dengvaxia-related cases “in the coming days” against ex-health secretary Janette Garin, now Iloilo representative, and 38 others before the Department of Justice.
At a media briefing, Dr. Erwin Erfe, PAO forensic division chief and a lawyer, said PAO’s panel of lawyers and the forensic staff are in the process of building more cases over the deaths of school children who received the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine in 2016 until 2018.
He said PAO is also preparing for the trial of the criminal cases filed with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court against Garin; former and active officials from the Department of Health, Food and Drug Administration, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, and Philippine Children’s Medical Center, and Sanofi Pasteur Inc. representatives.
“PAO is ready (for the trial). The victims’ kin must closely coordinate with us,” he added.
He called the Dengvaxia cases “the biggest trial in Philippine history” and “the trial of the century because of the involvement of some politicians and high-ranking government officIals.”
“Next is the filing of more cases in the coming days. There is something you have to look forward to. Just wait, it’s coming soon,” he told reporters.
“To the other relatives of the Dengvaxia victims, I am giving you the assurance that cases would be filed. Do not worry,” he said.
PAO chief Persida Acosta thanked President Rodrigo Duterte for his direct veto of an insertion in the P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 by Senators Franklin Drilon and Sonny Angara disallowing the utilization of PAO’s budget for the salaries and compensation of personnel, travel allowance, meetings and maintenance and other operating expenses of PAO’s forensic laboratory.
In his Dec. 28 veto message, the President tagged Drilon and Angara’s unconstitutional insertion as “logrolling” or a give-and-take scheme among lawmakers.
Acosta said the two senators belonged to the ACRRA Law Office handling the Dengvaxia criminal suits against Sanofi.
Moreover, she said 100 civil suits would be filed against Garin and the other accused, including Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and executives of Zuellig Pharma Inc., the distributor of the Dengvaxia vaccines, with the Quezon City family court.
“We appeal to the (state) prosecutors to abide by the Supreme Court order that there is one Dengvaxia court,” she told reporters.
She requested the DOJ prosecutors not to dismiss the torture case filed by some 100 parents against all of the accused.
PAO has yet to conduct an autopsy on the remains of hundreds of children whose deaths were linked to the Dengvaxia vaccine, she noted.
“Because of the lockdown, we were not able to conduct more autopsies,” she added.
A nephew of Acosta from Bataan supposedly died just recently after receiving three doses of the vaccine since 2016.
In November 2017, Sanofi, the manufacturer of Dengvaxia vaccine, issued an official statement on its website and admitted the drug could be harmful when administered to individuals not previously infected with dengue.
“Dengvaxia provides persistent protective benefits against dengue fever in those who had prior infection. For those not previously infected by dengue virus, however… more cases of severe disease could occur following vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection,” the statement read.
The government under Garin procured P3.5 billion worth of Dengvaxia intended for one million public school children in areas reported to have the highest incidence of dengue in 2015.
In April 2016, the school-based mass vaccination began, and that the vaccine was administered to 830,000 school children and even policemen.