DILIMAN, Quezon City — A group of parents whose children's deaths were linked to the Dengvaxia vaccine has slammed former Department of Health (DoH) secretary and Iloilo District II reelectionist representative Janette Garin for allegedly 'lying' and fooling the public into believing that the cases filed against her and her co-accused have been dismissed.

Officers and members of the Samahan ng mga Magulang ang mga Anak ay Biktima ng Dengvaxia (SMABD) were enraged by the former health secretary's public pronouncements that she and her co-respondents were already absolved from criminal liability over the deaths of several school children inoculated with the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia manufactured by French pharmaceutical Sanofi Pasteur.

Criminal cases were filed against Garin and her co-accused, doctors Gerardo Bayugo and Ma. Joyce Ducusin, in October 2023 but early this year, the Department of Justice (DoJ) ordered the withdrawal of the cases because it was argued that "the respondents do not exhibit inexcusable lack of precaution to hold them liable."

Accused of wasting public funds worth ₱3.5 billion for the purchase of the vaccine that was later, Garin hailed a Quezon City family court and the DoJ for "exonerating" them from the controversial case.

Garin was referring to the first batch of eight cases dismissed by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 229 Judge Cleto Villacorta III and the Justice department's January 10, 2025 resolution junking 98 similar complaints.

However, SMABD led by its president Sumachen Dominguez insisted that the charges were far from over as the eight 'dismissed' cases were subject of a motion for certiorari for review filed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) before the Court of Appeals (CA).

The OSG opined in the same motion that Judge Villacorta "committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in issuing assailed orders granting respondents' demurrer to evidence and denying petitioner's subsequent motions for reconsideration despite the overwhelming evidence on record against respondents vis-à-vis well-established jurisprudence of the matter."

Furthermore, SMABD disclosed that the Public Attorney's Office (PAO) filed two motions for reconsideration before the DoJ "for patently ignoring and disregarding the fact that the 170 victims died simultaneously after vaccination although living in different places but all clearly manifested common patterns of clinical manifestations."

The respondents' reckless imprudence and disregard of the victims' life and safety are made even more glaring by their failure to perform surveillance and monitoring of the innocent and unsuspecting vaccines as mandated by the Food and Drug Administration and the Sanofi Pasteur Inc. (vaccine maker) undertaking based on its declaration, the PAO's motions noted.