(Eagle News) — The Palace on Monday bucked calls by a group led by former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral for the Public Attorneys Office to stop conducting autopsies on suspected Dengvaxia victims.
In a press conference, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the “position of the government,” after all, “is we’re in search of the truth.”
“We will resort to autopsy when it’s needed,” Roque said.
Roque appeared to vouch for the integrity of the PAO and the University of the Philippines Philippine General Hospital that are conducting the autopsies, noting that as “public officers, they have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the land.”
“And of course the public nature of these institutions will make them independent and neutral on the controversy,” he said.
Over the weekend, the Doctors for Public Welfare said PAO should stop performing autopsies on the children who were administered Dengvaxia, and to “leave the matter of determining the cause of death to competent forensic pathologists.”
The group issued the statement after the UP PGH released its study results that said that the deaths of 14 children who were administered with Dengvaxia were “totally not related to the vaccine.”
The UP PGH noted, however, that there could be vaccine failure in two cases.
“It makes no sense for any more families to be subjected to the torture of having a loved one exhumed and cut up, only to find out that no useful information was derived from the cruel act,” the DPW said.