Tony Leachon says he's facing threats to life, career, PRC license

Dr. Anthony "Tony" Leachon said in a statement Monday that he is faced with threats to his life, career, and professional license, alleging politicians as primary suspects if “anything happens to him.”

“I am facing the greatest battle of my life—defending the Filipino people. There are threats to my life, my career, and even my PRC license. These threats have been relayed to me through persons, and I take them seriously,” Leachon said in a statement.

“If anything happens to me, let it be clear: politicians are the primary suspects,” he added.

This statement comes two days after the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) suspended Leachon for six months for defamation against fellow physicians and health professionals and violation of ethical standards.

"Respondent engaged in defamatory allegations and insinuations or claims of corruption and unethical practice against colleagues, in a public and official forum, even without any personal knowledge or sufficient evidence to support the aforesaid allegations," the 26-page decision by the PCP said.

The grounds of the ethics complaint against Leachon included misrepresentation as an expert witness and disseminating false information in the context of his stand against the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.

The PCP regents found that he didn't commit the said violations; however, they found him liable for defamation and violation of ethical standards.

Leachon, in his statement on Monday, said that if he lost his fight with the PCP, he acknowledged the possibility of his clinical practice being “jeopardized,” but regardless, he said he “will take the challenge.”

“At 65, I can say I have lived a good life. But I will not stop. The Philippine College of Physicians has been used to silence me, and complicity is a crime,” Leachon said.

‘Public relations spectacle’

Before Leachon’s statement, Deputy Speaker Janette Garin expressed her support for the PCP’s decision and courage to “uphold its mandate without fear or favor.”

“There is profound arrogance in Dr. Anthony Leachon’s reckless assumption that a well-established, respectable institution like the Philippine College of Physicians would stretch its organization’s ethical rules and compromise its core standards just to target a single individual,” said Garin, the secretary of health when the dengue vaccine was rolled out in the country.

“The administrative case against Dr. Leachon was filed as early as February 2025, predating the recent controversies he is currently weaponizing to deflect accountability,” she added.

According to Garin, Leachon was allowed to present his side and to defend his rights on the matter.

The lawmaker noted that for Leachon to frame a professional disciplinary case as a conspiracy against him “is not only a textbook attempt to gaslight the medical community, but is also an insult to his own peers in the profession.”

“I therefore urge Dr. Leachon to cease converting this matter into a public relations spectacle and instead address the actual merits of his case before the proper venue,” Garin said.

Leachon said he is not asking for help, but "only prayers." –NB, GMA News