Duterte to form 3-man panel of experts over Dengvaxia mess

May 8, 2018

President Rodrigo Duterte will create a three-man panel of experts who will determine if Dengvaxia really caused the deaths of some people who were injected with the vaccine.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the experts would come from Asian countries.

"The president, after much discussion, said that he will create a three-man panel of experts; all Asians, no Westerners and he will be bound by the findings of these three-man experts on the issue of whether or not Dengvaxia actually caused deaths," he said.

He said Duterte wants a third party to come out with its own findings due to the conflicting statements from the Public Attorney's Office and the doctors from the Philippine General Hospital.

"Now the problem of the president is - although there is a finding of a PAO expert and there is the PGH panel of experts findings - as a lawyer and a former prosecutor, he knows that expert witnesses can cancel out each other’s testimonies. In effect, he said that, with conflicting testimonies from the experts from PAO and the PGH, he is constrained to seek further advice from disinterested parties, and that’s why he requested that the panel of experts should be foreign, should have no links absolutely with the Philippine government," he said.

PAO has said those children who received Dengvaxia died due to the vaccine, while PGH claimed there was no direct connection.

Roque said the Department of Health has submitted to Duterte a list of the names of experts from Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries who could be tapped.

He said the findings of the experts could also be used in filing charges to anyone who could be found responsible for the mess.

Roque also said Duterte supports the DOH move to ask Congress that the fund refunded by Sanofi Pasteur, the manufacturer of Dengvaxia, be used to support those who received the vaccine. Celerina Monte/DMS