The chairman of the House of Representatives on Monday called on his colleagues to help assuage the fears of parents of children administered with the controversial Dengvaxia anti-dengue vaccine by adopting the House’s version of the P1.161-billion supplemental budget for the 800,000-plus schoolchildren vaccinated in 2016.
Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, the panel’s chairman, said the House version was “more responsive to the needs of the children vaccinated with Dengvaxia.”
Nograles met with parents of Dengvaxia-administered children on Saturday in Quezon City to update them on the latest developments on the supplemental budget bill, which parents hoped would allow them to obtain medical care for their children if they get sick.
Rachel Abian, a single mother whose child was administered the vaccine in June 2016, said that she recently had her child admitted in a private hospital after he displayed symptoms of dengue, and was initially confident about receiving financial support from the government after she learned that the Senate had passed its version of the supplemental budget bill.
In response, Nograles said that the mother’s concerns were warranted given a crucial difference between the Senate and House versions of the measure.
The Senate version, he said, indicates that beneficiaries of the supplemental budget would be “dengue patients, while the House version identifies the beneficiaries of the supplemental budget as “Dengvaxia vaccinees,” a distinction that would be problematic for parents like Rachel.
“If we adopt the Senate version that says the beneficiaries should be children with dengue, then if doctors later learn that the child of Rachel is not suffering from dengue but another illness, Rachel’s child will be ineligible for government support,” said Nograles.
“This is unfair to her child, and the other children who received Dengvaxia, because they are forced to take precautions like going to hospitals and clinics at the onset of any illness only because they were vaccinated. Di naman tama yan, we have an obligation to these kids,” Nograles added.
To avoid situations like these, Nograles called on his colleagues in the bicameral committee to consider the sentiments of families dealing with the Dengvaxia debacle and adopt the House version of the supplemental budget measure—a sentiment echoed by Abian.
Last week, the Senate passed the bill providing a P1.161 billion supplemental budget to finance the medical needs of children injected with the Dengvaxia vaccine. The Senate’s passage of the measure was way ahead of the passage of the House’s version last May 30.
Congressmen and senators are expected to finetune the bill in a bicameral conference committee that will begin soon.”‹