Janette, Oscar Garin file libel raps vs ex-health chief Ubial, 3 others

Iloilo Rep. Oscar “Richard” Garin Jr. and Former Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Janette Garin. (Facebook photo/Philippine Daily Inquirer)

ILOILO CITY—Former Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Janette Garin and her husband Iloilo Rep. Oscar “Richard” Garin Jr. have filed separate libel complaints against former Health secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell Ubial in relation to the Dengvaxia vaccine controversy.

In a four-page complaint filed with the Iloilo Provincial Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, Garin accused Ubial of violating Republic Act No. 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act).

Garin in her complaint said she “felt so much maligned and dishonored by the malicious statements” of Ubial in media interviews on Garin’s role in the Dengvaxia controversy.

“Those public statements … were totally malicious by imputing upon me (together with other DOH officials) a crime, or of a vice or defect …. These statements and imputations made by Doctor Ubial have caused dishonor, discredit or contempt upon my person and also as the former Secretary of the DOH and former Representative of the House of Congress representing the First (1st) District of the Province of Iloilo,” Garin said in her complaint-affidavit.

Garin implemented the controversial P3.5 billion anti-dengue vaccination drive using Dengvaxia in 2016.

Malicious, untrue

Representative Garin also filed a libel complaint against Ubial on January 28 in relation to Ubial’s statements during a joint hearing of the Senate blue ribbon and health and finance committees.

Ubial had said that Representative Garin was one of the representatives who had asked her “to buy more dengue vaccine and put it in the 2018 budget.”

Representative Garin said Ubial’s statements were “malicious and untrue.”

“She made it appear that I was harassing or pressuring her so that the government would be buying more dengue vaccines,” he said.

Former Secretary Garin also filed similar complaints against Dr. Teodoro Herbosa, a former DOH undersecretary; Dr. Francisco Cruz, former DOH consultant; and Dr. Anthony Leachon, a former director of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation.

Garin filed the complaint against Cruz for his statements alleging her involvement in a “mafia” within the DOH.

“This statement is not only malicious but untrue. To call me and other DOH officials as belonging to a “Mafia” is purely malicious statement without any basis,” she said in her complaint.