DR. Anthony Leachon has requested the Pasig City Regional Trial Court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the six-month suspension meted out to him by the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) for serious ethical violations.
Leachon, an independent health advocate and a prosecution witness in the Dengvaxia case, was a former president of the PCP.
He cited inconsistencies and self-contradiction in the May 2026 PCP decision to suspend him.
Leachon argued that the PCP first ruled in the ethics complaint filed against him in February 2025 by former Health secretary and now Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin, Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Dr. Julius Lecciones, Dr. Raymundo Lo and Maria Lourdes Santiago, that he did not violate the organization’s code of ethics.
He added that the PCP also ruled that the complainants failed to establish and prove that he acted in bad faith in disseminating information on the health effects of Dengvaxia, especially when he presented and cited scientific data.
“Yet, despite these findings, the PCP concluded that I committed defamation and malicious attacks against fellow physicians and allied health professionals and that I deliberately made allegations and insinuations or claims of corruption and unethical practice against Dr. Hartigan-Go,” Leachon said.
Stressing that Garin and her co-plaintiffs were public figures whose official conduct and performance in office are legitimate subjects of public scrutiny and criticism, Leachon said his statements were neither malicious nor irresponsible and were made in good faith in connection with matters involving public accountability and public health policy.
“The PCP is an institution I have served, led, and respected throughout my professional life. My decision to seek relief from the courts is not an attack on the institution, it is an appeal to the rule of law,” he said.
Leachon described the PCP suspension as “unfair, not measured, not proportionate and oppressive.”
“This case will now proceed through the courts, where I am confident the issues can be examined fairly, objectively, and independently,” he added.
