UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

In a Jan. 10, 2025 resolution, made public recently by the Department of Justice, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla announced the withdrawal of 98 cases of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide against former Health Secretary and incumbent Iloilo Representative Dr. Janette Garin, former health undersecretary Dr. Gerardo Bayugo and former DOH Officer-in-charge Dr. Ma. Joyce Ducusin.

The legal basis was that reckless imprudence or negligence is unintentional, whereas conspiracy implies intent, which makes it difficult to reconcile both allegations as arising from the same act.
Moreover, it could not be established that a causal link exists between the inoculation of the vaccine with the subsequent deaths of those vaccinated. Thus, the charges were legally and medically infirm, which led to the dropping of the charges. 

However, there is still a long list of accused aside from these three, and they have expressed hope that they too, will be exonerated from these charges. This group is actually made up of public servants in the DOH and in the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM). They and their contributions to our health system deserve to be known to the public instead of being vilified for something they are falsely accused of.

Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Clinical pharmacologist-toxicologist Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh was a former director general of the Food and Drug Administration and undersecretary of health, founding director of the Zuellig Foundation and former president of the Philippine College of Physicians, and for 10 years sat in the WHO advisory committee for Safety of Medicinal products as well as in the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety, among other positions.

Dr. Julius Lecciones, Fogarty Fellow, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, former executive director of the Philippine Childrens Medical Center, president-CEO of the Tropical Disease Foundation, and former director for Medical Affairs and Clinical Research  of several pharmaceutical companies, is an awardee of many government, civic, and private medical organizations for his stint in government service.

Ms. Maria Lourdes Santiago retired as the FDA deputy director general for Field Regulatory Operations after 32 years of service, and was designated as quality pillar manager of the National Drug Policy Program of the Department of Health and Center for Drug Regulation and Research. She established the first Bioavailability Testing Center in the country. For these and many more achievements, Ms. Santiago was conferred UST Outstanding Thomasian Alumni Award, the Philippine Pharmacists Association Outstanding Pharmacist in Government Service among others.

Dr. Maria Rosario Capeding, trained at the University of Helsinki and National Public Health Institute (Helsinki,) heads the Medical Research Unit at  the Tropical Disease Foundation, the Department of Microbiology of RITM. She is a member of the WHO Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination, Western Pacific Region. A prodigious researcher, she has published 89 original articles in peer-reviewed journals and presented 94 scientific papers in international conferences, for which she has received many awards including the 23rd Jose P. Rizal Memorial Award for Research from the PMA, 2015 Outstanding Professional of the Year in Medicine,  and the 2015 Eric C. Nubla Excellence Award by the PRC. A recipient of the 2020 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grant for Community Preparedness in Covid-19 Vaccine Clinical Trials, she serves as the country  lead for the World Bank ASEAN Vaccine Development and Manufacturing Research Project, 2022-2023.  

These are but a few of the accused who have made great contributions to our health care system. They have spent their whole professional lives working for the greatest good of our people’s health. Now, can you imagine them conspiring with each other to disgrace themselves after all their hard work and being awarded by prestigious government, national and international, and private organizations? Highly unlikely, if not altogether impossible.

After their professional qualifications were presented in court, they testified and were cross-examined. The presiding judge for the first eight Dengvaxia cases in court deemed Drs. Clarito Cairo, Antonio Leachon and Erwin Erfe NOT experts in the subject they were testifying on, hence the cases were dismissed.

Now who is more believable, the accusers or the accused?