BALANGA CITY — Bishop Ruperto Santos of the Diocese of Balanga on Monday likened the controversial vaccine Dengvaxia to the Death March during World War II.
“Dengvaxia is like the infamous Death March because the fear of sickness and death walks in the province,” the Bataan bishop said after learning of the death of Alexzander Jaime, 12, of Barangay Puerto Rivas Itaas here.
Thousands of Filipino and American soldiers died after they surrendered when Bataan fell on April 9, 1942 and forced to walk from Mariveles in this province to San Fernando, Pampanga on the way to the concentration camp in Capas, Tarlac.
Jaime who received inoculation of the vaccine for three doses died January 4, 2018.
His parents believed Dengvaxia caused his death.
Forensic experts of the Public Attorney’s Office autopsied the body of victim before he was buried.
“It is with great sorrow and tragic loss that there is again another life that perished, that of Alexzander Jaime, because of the disastrous Dengvaxia,” the prelate said.
He described the vaccine as “dubious and disgraced” that casts unending anxieties and worries to parents of vaccinated children.
He asked that truth must come out.
“There could be deception and dishonesty, conspiracy and corruption with those in the higher ups motivated by greed, profit and political interests at the expense of our innocent children,” Santos said.
The bishop said the children should be the first and foremost protected.
“They should not be experimented nor sacrificed but to be taken care of and not to be used nor abused,” the representative of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines in Central Luzon said.
He called for the Senate hearings to continue and to produce unbiased and truthful results.
“Prosecute and punish the guilty. Do not forget and abandon our vaccinated children. Help and heal them. Let us build up their future,” Santos said.
