Parents of schoolchildren who died after they were inoculated with the deadly Dengvaxia vaccine are not taking matters sitting down, as they vowed to fight to the last to achieve justice.
“The fight is not over. We will not give up,” said Sumachen Dominguez, president of the Samahan ng mga Magulang, Anak at Biktima ng Dengvaxia (SMABD), on Monday.
“Iniwasan namin magsalita hinggil dito sa social media dahil ang mga kaso ay nasa tamang lugar na. (We avoid saying anything (about it) on social media since the cases are already at the proper venues),” Sumachen added.
This, as she lamented the claims of some quarters that the criminal, civil, and administrative cases they filed before the Quezon City courts and the Sandiganbayan against former Department of Health Secretary and now Iloilo Representative Janette Garin and several doctors have been dismissed.
On the contrary, Dominguez maintained that the cases are still alive and pending due to the fact that the Office of the Solicitor General sought to revive the eight cases dismissed by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court.
Earlier, the kin of the eight children who died due to Dengvaxia lauded the legal action taken by the Office of the Solicitor General in filing petitions for review on certiorari before the Court of Appeals.
The OSG petition challenges the Quezon City Regional Trial Court’s dismissal of eight criminal charges filed against Garin and the other respondents, including ex-Philippine Children’s Medical Center Director Julius Lecciones, Dr. Vicente Belizario Jr., Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Dr. Irma Asuncion, Dr. Maria Joyce Ducusin, Dr. Gerardo Bayugo, Dr. Rosalind Vianzon, Carlito Realuyo, and Conchita Santos.
“This petition for certiorari under Rule 65 of the Revised Rules of Court seeks to reverse, annul, and set aside the following issuances rendered by respondent Judge Cleto R. Villacorta III, Presiding Judge of Branch 229, Regional Trial Court, Quezon City, in Criminal Case Nos. R-QZN-20-08619-CR, R-QZN-21-05256-CR, R-QZN-22-03837-CR, R-QZN-22-03938-CR, R-QZN-20–08618-CR, R-QZN-09218-CR, R-QZN-20-09662-CR, and R-QZN-20-03936-CR, all entitled People of the Philippines v. Dr. Janette L. Garin et al.,” Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra’s petition read.
It argued that the orders granting the demurrer to evidence filed by Garin and the other respondents were issued with grave abuse of discretion amounting to a lack or excess of jurisdiction.
The parents' group also lauded the Supreme Court’s Assistant Court Administrator Lilian Barribal-Co for ordering the QCRTC-Branch 102 to set a pre-trial conference on the 35 other Dengvaxia cases.
Out of the 100 criminal complaints, 82 of them were already resolved by the Department of Justice for filing, while 18 others that had already been dismissed had been the subject of petitions for review.
On the other hand, the counterpart civil cases of the 169 criminal cases, 158 of them were already filed before the QCRTC-Branch 226 Judge Manuel Sta. Cruz, the SMABD said.
Sumachen also reiterated that the criminal case filed before the Sandiganbayan by the National Bureau of Investigation was still pending trial after the anti-graft court’s denial of a motion to quash filed by Garin and the other respondents.
A complaint was also filed by Atty. Ferdinand Topacio against Garin before the Office of the Ombudsman, which ordered the filing of the case at the Sandiganbayan for the procurement of P3.5 billion worth of Dengvaxia vaccines in 2015 for a school-based immunization program.