Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles on Friday said Congress would fix the Dengvaxia aid budget if the Department of Health screws up anew.
In a television interview, Nograles said the House of Representatives would “gladly” craft a responsive supplemental budget for Dengvaxia victims should DoH disappoint anew with their budget proposal.
Nograles is the appropriations committee chairman.
He said he expects Secretary Francisco Duque to tick all the boxes in the agency’s revised supplemental budget breakdown when they meet again on May 22.
“If not then the panel would take matters in its own hands,” he noted.
“That’s why Tuesday, whether they present to me a good budget or not, if it’s not a good budget, we will be the one to dissect it. I will approve it on Tuesday, send it to floor, have it approved on the last week [of the second regular session] since we’re going to go on break, and send it to the Senate,” he said.
The Senate and House of Representatives will adjourn sine die on June 1.
Last Wednesday, DoH presented to the committee its proposed supplemental budget for 2018, which would focus on providing medical aid to nearly 900,000 school children who were vaccinated with Dengvaxia during the previous Aquino administration.
At the end of the presentation, Nograles told Duque to “recast” or revise their flawed proposal.
“It should be so simple, right? You can already imagine in your head what system you’re going to use, how to activate the system and all of that…but I don’t see it in this budget (DoH proposal), I don’t see it in the system in place and there are many lapses in the system,” he said.
Nograles earlier filed House Bill No. 7449 or the proposed supplemental budget for 2018 that seeks to utilIze the P1.16-billion refund given to the Philippine government by Dengvaxia manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur of France.
In April 2016, the Philippines became the first country in the world to launch a mass anti-dengue inoculation program using the new drug.
The program was suspended after Sanofi admitted in November 2017 that children who have never had dengue but were given Dengvaxia shots have an increased risk of a severe case and hospitalization from the third year after immunization.
The Davao City lawmaker said the Dengvaxia program was “DAP-like” since the inoculation effort was unprogrammed or was not included in the 2016 General Appropriations Act.
He said the P3 billion used for the purchase of the Dengvaxia vials was taken from the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund.
The Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) was devised by the previous Aquino administration as a way for the executive to realign “savings” to other programs.
It was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2014, way before the purchase of the anti-dengue drug took place.
“What I want from DoH is to show me a real deployment plan that will address the issues of the parents. What they want really is a no-nonsense monitoring of their children,” he said.