PAO amends ‘Dengvaxia case’ to include two former officials of PCMC
By Chito Chavez
The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) called on the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (QCRTC) to include an order two other former officials of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) to “jointly or severally’’ compensate the kin of a 13-year-old girl who allegedly died after being administered with the Dengvaxia vaccine.
In an amended complaint, Ariel and Ruby Hedia, parents of alleged Dengvaxia vaccine victim Abbie, said Dr. Raymundo Lo, ex-PCMC deputy director for Professional Service, and Dr. Sonia Gonzales, department manager for Medical Services, are not yet off the hook in their alleged involvement in the multi-million peso Dengvaxia damage suit filed against the executives of French pharmaceutical Sanofi Pasteur Inc. and its distributor Zuellig Pharma Corporation.
The respondents in the damage suit also included ex-health secretary Janette Garin; Health Secretary Francisco Duque III; PCMC executive director Julius Lecciones and other concerned hospital officials.
The complaint noted Lo and Gonzales must be held liable as signatories in the procurement of the P3-billion Dengvaxia vaccines.
“From the congressional investigation, it was unveiled by the committee on health that Dr. Raymundo W. Lo and Dr. Sonia B. Gonzales, like Dr. Julius Lecciones, Dr. Joyce Ducusin, Dr. Rosalind Vianzon and Dr. Mario Baquigod, are two of the accountable government officials, who actively participated in the purchase of Dengvaxia and/or spearheaded the implementation of the anti-dengue mass vaccination program of the Department of Health despite the danger that Dengvaxia posed to the targeted population/recipients,’’ the complaint read.
The Hedia family has sought PAO’s assistance regarding their daughter’s death supposedly after being injected with the Dengvaxia vaccine.
PAO clarified DoH purchased the Dengvaxia vaccine for P3 billion and not P3.5 billion as earlier reported.
In a 2017 audit report, the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the DoH for the non-disbursement of the anti-dengue program funds worth P556.115 million.
The Hedia couple in the complaint said the “program was recklessly implemented and the life-threatening drug was administered with gross disregard for human lives and at the expense of innocent unsuspecting children, mostly from poor and downtrodden families’’.
The complaint also stated the accused “violated the Medical Protocol for the implementation of the program without appropriate screening process through available diagnostic tests, sans informed consent’’.
Under Garin’s administration in 2016 until Duque’s term, “more or less 833,000 children aged nine to 14” were vaccinated with the Dengvaxia vaccine shots.
On Nov. 29, 2017, Sanofi issued an advisory of update information citing “for those not previously infected by dengue virus, however, the analysis found that in the longer term, more cases of severe disease could occur following vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection’’.
“It is criminal to vaccinate children with a trial drug. And the continuing neglect on victims is a monstrosity,’’ the Hedia couple said in the complaint.
The civil suit involved actual and compensatory damages of P3,084,448; death indemnity of P50,000; moral damages of P400,000; exemplary damages of P400,000 and litigation costs
To recall, various Quezon City courts ordered the consolidation of the civil suits filed by the kin of the other Dengvaxia victims to QCRTC Branch 226 that junked the motions filed by Sanofi, Zuellig, Garin, Duque, and the other defendants to dismiss Hedia’s civil case.