ILOILO City – Former Health secretary Janette Garin expressed confidence the Dengvaxia controversy won’t affect the political strength of the Garin family, the acknowledged political kingpins in the 1st District of Iloilo province.
Ilonggos are intelligent people, according to Garin who faces charges for the Department of Health’s 2016 anti-dengue vaccination program that used Dengvaxia, a vaccine that, as found out late last year, may cause severe dengue to children inoculated with it but did not have previous dengue infection.
“The province of Iloilo has a high literacy rate. Ilonggos are smart and not easily swayed by fake news,” said Garin, a doctor.
It is this that gives her courage to publicly address the issue, she stressed.
The vice governor of Iloilo province is Garin’s sister-in-law Christine.
Garin’s husband Richard is Iloilo 1st District congressman. Her parents-in-law are also municipal mayors – Oscar in Guimbal and Ninfa in San Joaquin.
“People should know what is true, who is lying and who is telling the truth,” said Garin.
According to the former Health secretary, she has already submitted pertinent documents to the National Bureau of Investigation that was tasked to investigate the Dengvaxia issue.
Garin, former President Benigno Aquino III and former Budget secretary Florencio Abad, among others, were accused of rushing the purchase of Dengvaxia without thoroughly studying it, thereby endangering the lives of over 800 thousand public schoolchildren inoculated with the vaccine.
“Compared sa accusation sa amon nga puro lang newspaper clippings, ang amon ‘ya pinang-submit were all the records of meetings, all the documents, including World Health Organization publications kag mga pruweba nga wara pa ako sa DOH, 2002 gina-istoryahan na nila,” said Garin.
If the former Health secretary were to be believed, “2005 nag-start na planning bilog nga kalibutan kay nakita nila ang dengue nag-shoot up ang problema. Year 2010 nag start na pag-istorya sang bakuna nga magsulod.”
Garin said she was appointed DOH secretary in December 2014 and “pagsulod ko, I took over the final part (of the Dengvaxia planning) kag ginahulat na lang kon pila ang presyo.”
She denied that the reported deaths of several children were due to Dengvaxia and slammed “pseudo experts” for insisting on this.
“Ang motibo gid man ka iban, gagahud sila kay gusto nila ma-appoint sila ni Duterte,” added Garin./PN
