AN official of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) on Tuesday told a Quezon City court the more than 2,500 deaths linked to the Covid-19 vaccine was reason enough to stop the mass vaccination of minors.

Testifying during the hearing of the QC Regional Trial Court on a petition questioning the legality of the Department of Health’s (DoH) policy to inoculate children against Covid, PAO Forensics Division director Dr. Erwin Erfe said it was “normal that there are adverse effects for every vaccine, but these must not be serious and there must be no deaths, unlike with Covid-19 vaccines.”

Erfe presented data from the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that there were 2,573 deaths related to Covid-19 vaccines from March 2021 until July 2022.

The FDA reported that 12 of those who died were 5 to 11 years old, 1,470 were over 60 years old, 702 were 40 to 59 years old, 332 were from ages 18 to 39 years old, and 39 were 12 to 17 years old.

Erfe was cross-examined by the lawyers for the respondents, former Health secretary Francisco Duque 3rd, Acting DoH Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, and the DoH’s Public Health Services Team.

He told the court the FDA report justifies the claims of the parents who filed the petition to stop the “experimental” Covid-19 vaccination, especially of children ages 5 to 11 years.

Erfe and PAO chief Persida RuedaAcosta, who is the principal counsel for the parents, insist on a clearance from the pediatrician of a minor who has comorbidities before vaccination is carried out.

If only the DoH secured such a clearance, vaccine-related deaths could have been avoided, they said.

Erfe, who supervised the autopsies on 166 victims of the controversial dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, told the court children ages 5 to 11 are the most likely victims of Covid vaccination-related deaths.

“It is worthy to note that the Department of Health is now rolling out the Covid-19 vaccination among children ages 5 to 11 years and the DoH is committing the same negligence, misrepresentation, misinformation, and with bad faith the said rolling-out of the Covid-19 vaccination, particularly, to children,” he said.

Erfe shared the concern of other witnesses that no Covid-19 vaccine has been issued a certificate of product registration (CPR) by the FDA.

He told The Times that the DoH continues to deceive the public by refusing to reveal the serious effects of Covid-19 vaccines.

Another PAO physician, Dr. John King Soliman, testified that his patient, 15-year-old Angelo James Parejas of Bulan, Sorsogon, suffered from serious adverse effects after he was given an anti-Covid shot.

“Angelo James was active and essentially a normal child, but his health condition has drastically changed for the worse after his inoculation with Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine,” Soliman said.

Former ABS-CBN reporter Dominic Almelor; Girlie Samonte of Tondo, Manila; and Joel Corpuz of Cainta, Rizal represented other parents at the hearing.