DOJ junks libel suit vs health officials over Dengvaxia claims
The Department of Justice has thrown out the libel suit filed by former health secretary Janette Garin against her successor Jean Paulyn Ubial and other Department of Health officials over the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine.
In a 10-page resolution, the DOJ dismissed the libel complaints filed by the former health chief and her husband Iloilo Rep. Oscar Garin Jr. for “insufficiency of evidence.” It also held that the respondents did not intend malice—an element of libel—in their statements and claims cited in the complaint.
Garin said that Ubial and other health officials named as respondents allegedly gave “malicious statements, damaging, and offensive to the complainants.”
The complainants cited in particular the claim of Dr. Francisco Cruz, former DOH consultant, that a “’mafia’ system” operated in the DOH for the procurement of Dengvaxia.
They also noted Ubial’s “malicious” statement that she “insinuated corruption” in the administration of Dengvaxia. Also named as respondents were health advocate Anthony Leachon and former health official Teodoro Herbosa.
Ubial, Cruz, Leachon and Herbosa, in their defense, said that their respective statements “were meant to educate the public” on the Dengvazia controversy, “hence, no malice was intended.”
The DOJ, in ruling on the complaint, said that the respondents were health practitioners who have a duty to preserve the life and health of the people. It noted that it is “understandable” that they were “enraged” with the allegations that Dengvaxia may have caused deaths to children.
“While there is no established link of the effect of the said drug to the human body, it appears that there were already some protests/studies/ comments from medical practitioners relative to the administration of this vaccine to the human body,” the DOJ also held.
“It can be said that the respondents who were very vocal in their objections in the administration of the Dengvaxia vaccine, and concerned about its effects in the human body, had acted out of the sense of justice, thus negating actual malice,” the ruling read.
Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Lilian Doris Alejo penned the ruling, which was approved by Acting Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon.
Criminal and administrative complaints have been lodged before the DOJ and the Office of the Ombudsman over the inoculation and purchase of the controversial antidengue vaccine.
A recent study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that the Philippines’ “highly politicized response” to the reported risks of Dengvaxia has eroded overall public trust in immunization.