By Jeffrey Damicog Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) Chief Persida Acosta on Saturday (Feb. 22) expressed no surprise over the decision of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to indict former Health Secretary and current Iloilo Representative Janette Garin and her co-respondents over the second batch of Dengvaxia complaints concerning the deaths of eight children who got inoculated with the still experimental anti-dengue vaccine. Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) Chief Persida Rueda Acosta
(KEVIN TRISTAN ESPIRITU / MANILA BULLETIN) “The evidence presented is overwhelming,” said Acosta, whose office filed the complaints before the DOJ on behalf of the families of the victims. “The Dengvaxia victims expected full indictment and prosecution at the proper court with jurisdiction,” she added. Following the conduct of a preliminary investigation over the second batch of complaints, the DOJ said the panel of prosecutors have found probable cause to indict Garin and her co-respondents with reckless imprudence resulting to homicide. The panel also recommended the indictment of the executives of Pasteur Sanofi, the manufacturer of Dengvaxia, for violating the Consumer Act of the Philippines. The second batch of complaints concerns the deaths of children Roshaine Carino, Christine Joy Asuncion, Clarissa Alcantara, Erico Mendoza Leabres, Christine Mae de Guzman, John Paul Rafael, Michael Tablate, and Naomi Nimura Acosta said the eight children are among the 153 Dengvaxia victims who underwent forensic examination conducted by the PAO forensics team. “All of common pattern of signs and symptoms after mass vaccination,” Acosta said. The PAO chief said the victims suffered “increase in severity of dengue disease, viscerotropism ( multi-organ bleeding, hemorrhages, edema, enlargement), neurotropism ( brain bleeding, edema and enlargement),and anaphylactic allergic reaction.” She reminded that Sanofi even issued to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2015 a warning about the side effects of the vaccine. Despite this, Acosta said Garin, when she was still health secretary, still pushed ahead with the P3.5 billion purchase of the vaccine which was still under clinical trial phase 3 at that time.