(Eagle News) — The Public Attorneys Office on Tuesday, April 24, filed an obstruction complaint against Health Secretary Francisco Duque III after it supposedly discovered that the organs of children who were re-autopsied by PAO had been damaged after their Department of Health autopsies.
The charges filed before the Department of Justice came after criminal charges for violation of the Anti-Torture Law and for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide were filed against Duque and several others over the death of 13-year-old Abbie Hedia.
Her death came after she was administered the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine, which was procured under former Secretary Janette Garin’s time.
Duque had described the first set of charges filed against him as “malicious and oppressive,” noting that he was not the DOH chief at the time the vaccination program was implemented.
The DOH and PAO have been at loggerheads over their approach to the Dengvaxia mess, with the health department publicly saying that PAO’s forensics expert who was conducting the autopsies on the children who allegedly died after they were administered the controversial vaccine was not an expert in the first place.