By JEFFREY G. DAMICOG
Criminal complaints were filed yesterday before the Department of Justice (DoJ) against former health secretaries Janette Garin and Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial along with 33 others over the deaths of children injected with the controversial anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.
Assisted by the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), four families filed four separate complaints over the deaths of Aejay Bautista, who was 11 years old when he died on January 24, 2018; Anjielica Pestillos who was 10 when she passed away on December 5, 2017; Lenard Baldonado who was 10 when he died on November 9, 2017; and Zandro Colite who was just 11 when he expired on December 27, 2017.
“We have established the strong link between the mass vaccination and the untimely deaths of the victims,” PAO Chief Persida Acosta told reporters. She added that “the deaths are not just mere coincidental, the deaths are unusual.” …
“The mass vaccination was highly suspicious because the children affected appeared to be healthy,” she pointed out.
The respondents have been accused of committing reckless imprudence resulting to homicide under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code; and for torture committed against children and resulting in their death in violation of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009.
Apart from Garin, those who have been named respondents in all four complaints are Drs. Socorro Lupisan and Maria Rosario Capeding of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM); and other officials of the DoH who were involved in the purchase of the vaccine, namely Vicente Belizario Jr., Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Gertardo Bayugo, Lyndon Lee Suy, Irma Ascuncion, Julius Lecciones, Joyce Ducusin, Rosalind Vianzon, and Mario Baguilod.
Ubial was only named as a respondent in two of the complaints.
Vaccine manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur Inc. and distributor Zuellig Pharma Corporation were also included as respondents in the four complaints.
PAO forensics chief Dr. Erwin Erfe noted that all of the children had no history of dengue infection; received one up to three doses of Dengvaxia; became sick after vaccination with fever, rash, epistaxis, headache, stomach ache, body weakness, slurring of speech, among others; died as early as 11 days and up to eight months after vaccination of the last dose; and forensic examination of the bodies showed enlargement of organs and extensive bleeding in various organs.