Former Health Secretary now Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin has been indicted for the second time in connection with children’s deaths allegedly linked to the Dengvaxia anti-dengue vaccine.
Department of Justice Assistant Secretary Neal Bainto said yesterday that a panel of prosecutors issued last Wednesday a 78-page resolution which found probable cause to indict Garin and her co-respondents for reckless imprudence resulting to homicide for the deaths of eight children comprising the second batch of Dengvaxia complaints.
“Similar to the resolution on the first batch of Dengvaxia vaccine cases, the panel found that there was ‘inexcusable lack of precaution’ on the part of Garin and the other respondent government officials in the ‘fast-tracking of the procurement process’ for the Dengvaxia vaccine despite being aware of its low efficacy results and potential risks associated with its use,” Bainto said.
“The panel concluded that the accomplishment of the procurement process for the Dengvaxia vaccine, with undue haste, within a limited timeframe, and despite the red flags known to Garin and the other respondents, amounted to reckless imprudence,” he also said.
Under the Revised Penal Code, Bainto noted that “the penalty for reckless imprudence resulting to homicide is imprisonment of up to six years for each count.”
To be charged with Garin are former and current officials of the Department of Health officials – Dr. Vicente Belizario Jr., Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Dr. Gerardo Bayugo, Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, Dr. Irma Asuncion, Dr. Julius Lecciones, Dr. Joyce Ducusin, Rosalind Vianzon, and Mario Baquilod.
Also to be charged are “officials of the Food and Drug Administration, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, and Sanofi Pasteur Inc., for reckless imprudence resulting to homicide.”
Garin, House senior deputy minority leader, is unperturbed by her indictment.
The Secretary of Health when the controversial vaccine was administered to elementary schoolchildren appeared confident that this case, like the six others filed on similar issues, will be dismissed by the courts.
She blamed politics to be behind the move to link her to the Dengvaxia vaccination deaths.
She recalled that out of the seven cases of reckless imprudence previously filed against her, six have been dismissed.
“The dismissals entail the cases’ lack of basis and substance,” she said.
The opposition solon stated: “Haharapin ko ito ng buong tapang at walang takot dahil alam natin ang katotohanan.”
Garin said she has yet to receive the 78-page DoJ resolution and added politics was clearly behind the filing of cases against her.
She served in the Cabinet of President Benigno S. Aquino III who strongly endorsed former Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas in the 2016 presidential race won by President Duterte. (Jeffrey Damicog and Ben Rosario)
