Dengvaxia cases ordered consolidated
The judge gave the prosecution 15 days to file a single information against all the accused for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and serious physical injuries.
Daily TribuneThe judge gave the prosecution 15 days to file a single information against all the accused for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and serious physical injuries.
The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption and the Samahan ng mga Magulang, Anak at Biktima ng Dengvaxia slammed the quashing of several criminal cases against former health secretary and now Rep. Janette Garin over the vaccine's procurement.
In a press conference yesterday morning, the groups asked Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Maria Luisa Leslie G. Gonzales-Betic to reconsider her decision to quash the complaints for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicides and serious physical injuries.
It was during the term of Garin at the Department of Health that the government of then-President Noynoy Aquino administered to children the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.
Several deaths and illnesses were blamed on the vaccine, the procurement of which was said to have involved no less than the late President when he visited abroad the pharmaceutical firm behind Dengvaxia.
In tears, Sumachen Dominguez questioned the decision of the judge to consolidate and also quash some of the cases they filed against Garin, Melody Zamudio, Dr. Maria Rosario Z. Capeding, Dr. Rosalinda Vianzon, Carlito Realuyo and Conchita Santos.
"Why did you come up with that decision when, in fact, the Supreme Court has ruled that it should be treated as different cases since the children who died were injected in different areas and different times," said Dominguez in the vernacular.
The Public Attorney's Office has received the court order dated 7 December ordering the consolidation of the cases.
"In view thereof, the Motion to quash is partially granted. Criminal cases R-QZN-23-07131 to 54-CR and RQZN-2307159 to 69-CR are hereby quashed, pursuant to the pronouncement in Ivler v. Modesto-San Pedro that there shall be no splitting of charges under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code and that only one information shall be filed regardless of the number or severity of the consequences of the imprudent or negligent act," the dispositive portion of the order stated.