‘Dengvaxia’ parents want DoJ official out of Natl Prosecution Service

ANGRY parents whose children’s deaths were linked to the Dengvaxia vaccine on Monday appealed to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla to stop an undersecretary from supervising the agency’s National Prosecution Service (NPS), which is handling their cases against the former Health secretary and now Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin and her other co-respondents.

In a press briefing, held at the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) in Quezon City, the parents led by Sumachen Dominguez, president of the Samahan ng mga Magulang ang mga Anak ay Biktima ng Dengvaxia (SMABD), slammed the Department of Justice (DoJ) for dismissing the 24 cases filed against Garin and her co-accused because the victims’ parents were not able to show the vaccination cards issued by the Department of Health (DoH).

The dismissed cases were part of the over 160 criminal cases filed by PAO before the Justice department.

The parents said they sent separate letters to the President and Remulla to seek consideration by ordering the inhibition or transfer of assignment of Undersecretary Jesse Hermogenes Andres whose primary task was the supervision of NPS, among others.

“Mr. President and Secretary Boying Remulla, what we only want is a fair trial, but how can we expect to have it when Andres, who served as a lawyer of Garin in the Dengvaxia case, is now tasked to supervise the NPS which is handling our cases?” said Girlie Samonte whose son survived after he was injected twice with the vaccine.

“Obviously, there is a clear conflict of interest here,” Jonathan de Guzman said in Filipino.

PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta expressed her dismay over the dismissal of the 24 cases.

“That’s unbelievable! This, despite testimonies of witnesses that showed the children were injected with the Dengvaxia vaccine and amid pronouncements by former secretary Francisco Duque 3rd when he was at DoH that there were some who were already vaccinated but had not yet been issued their vaccination cards,” the chief public attorney said.

“There were even some of those who were able to tell their parents that they were injected with the Dengvaxia vaccine before they died,” Rueda-Acosta said.

The PAO said it supports the move of the parents to make an appeal to the Chief Executive and the DoJ chief.

Dominguez assailed Prosecutor Susan Bilog-Azarcon for removing from the list of respondents the names of Duque and Dengvaxia distributor Zuellig Pharma Corp.

The DoH, through the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, spent P3 billion for the mass vaccination of schoolchildren against dengue in 2016.