The QC Court schedules Dengvaxia hearing

A judge of the Quezon City Regional Court (QC-RTC) has set a program to hear Dengvaxia following a supreme court order to start the process of the second 35 cases.

RTC Branch 102 Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert set the hearing on March 25 for several movements and against-masks deposited by the defense panels and criminal prosecution.

An insider of the court explained that the judge will not yet address the merits of the cases, as it must first focus on the motions deposited by the two opposite parties.

Earlier this year, the administrator of the Supreme Court, Lilian Barribal-Co, guided the family judge to start with the trial for the 35 criminal cases.

At the end of last year, another judge of the city of Quezon, Cleto Villacorta III of Branch 229, rejected the first batch of eight cases, which mentioned “the failure of the criminal prosecution to establish a first file against the accused”.

Since then, the Office of the Attorney General has opposed the decision in Villacorta and has submitted a certification petition for review before the Court of Appeal, citing “the serious abuse of discretion of the judge”, among others.

Citing an office of the circular of the Court administrator, the official of the High Court said that the judges appointed to hear an inhibited case or to whom the case “cannot raise the problem of the property of the discretion of the judges to disqualify under section 1 or 2 of Regulation 137.”

Rule 137, especially sections 1 and 2, presents the compulsory and discretionary disqualification of judges.

“Thus, being the judge to whom the criminal cases mentioned above were re-refined, he is before Judge Burgos-Villavert to immediately get acquainted with cases and try the same,” said Barribal-Co.

Barribal-Co also said that the rules on voluntary inhibition did not give the judges “the unlimited discretion of renouncing a case”.

In view of the above and in accordance with a circular OCA, Barribal-Co reiterated that Burgos-Villavert “should try to hear Dengvaxia.”

In particular, Burgos-Villavert was expected to lead, following the scheduled hearing, regarding the motion to keep the information based on double danger by two of the accusation-Carlito Realuyo and Conchita Santos, both producers of Sanofi Inc. Executives-, as well as comments/opposition of prosecutors.

Similar motions to give up/rejects submitted by other respondents, namely Dr. Rosalind Vianzon, Maria Lourdes Santiago and Dr. Maria Rosario Capinging, were also to discuss for discussions on the same set date, the court of the court said.

Leaded by the main accused, the former secretary of the Health Department and now the representative of Iloilo, Janette Garin, the other accused who were facing criminal and civil cases include the main directors of the Zuell Pharma vaccine distributor and the officials of the Institute for Tropical Medicine, the Medical Center for Filipini and Drugs.