Senate fails to pass P1.16-billion budget for Dengvaxia kids

MANILA, Philippines — Due to lack of quorum, the Senate failed to pass the proposed P1.16-billion supplemental budget for Dengvaxia-inoculated children needing medical assistance.

The Senate spent over 10 hours of its last session day taking up the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, which President Duterte wants to present during his State of the Nation Address on July 23.

By the time the supplemental budget measure was presented for sponsorship by Senate committee on finance chair Loren Legarda at a little past 2 a.m., less than 10 senators were left in the session hall.

The Senate adjourned sine die around 2:30 a.m. yesterday.

It was learned the Senate minority bloc’s insistence on debating the proposed resolution on former chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s quo warranto case delayed the passage of the supplemental budget, which was certified as urgent by President Duterte and was funded by the refund of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur, maker of the vaccine that reportedly could have severe side effects for those who never had dengue before inoculation.

The proposed supplemental budget can be approved when Congress opens its third regular session on July 23.

According to sources, members of the opposition bloc, led by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, agreed not to delay the passage of the BBL and in exchange, the chamber would discuss in plenary the proposed resolution signed by 14 senators protesting the Supreme Court’s ruling removing Sereno through a quo warranto case filed against her. 

The proposed resolution, signed by 14 senators, called on the Supreme Court to review its decision granting the quo warranto petition to unseat Sereno. It stated impeachable officials like Sereno can only be removed if convicted in a Senate impeachment court.

When the BBL was unanimously approved on third and final reading, the senators immediately proceeded to deliberate on the proposed Senate Resolution No. 738 with Sen. Francis Pangilinan pushing for its adoption, and Sen. Panfilo Lacson questioning it.

After about half an hour of debates between the two aforementioned lawmakers, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri looked for Sen. Richard Gordon, who was next in line to question Pangilinan, but the former was not around.

The session hall was nearly empty, prompting Drilon to question the quorum because without it, the Senate has to adjourn.

Legarda, whose committee drafted the proposed supplemental budget, rushed to a rostrum pleading that the measure be discussed and approved.

“We can pass it,” Legarda said. “We have to decide whether to approve it now or make them (Dengvaxia vaccinees) wait for another two months for medical assistance to be given.”

Zubiri said he could try to appeal to Drilon to take back his motion to adjourn, the highest motion on the floor that must be acted on over all other motions. The minority, however, would not budge.

Drilon said the proposed supplemental budget has been pending and asked why it was only now that Legarda sought its approval.

Legarda said the House of Representatives only transmitted the bill on Tuesday night and the finance committee had to go through it.

Legarda said the Department of Budget and Management had certified the availability of funds so once Congress approves the bill, the P1.161 billion could be used already.

“I sympathize with the predicament of the sponsor (Legarda) and it grieves me – we are handcuffed by the motion of the minority leader (Drilon),” Senate President Vicente Sotto III told Legarda.

Sens. Joseph Victor Ejercito and Gordon, authors of the measure, expressed disappointment over the failure to pass yesterday the supplemental budget. 

Sen. Risa Hontiveros said the bill could still be approved when Congress opens its third and last regular session on July 23.

Assistance imperative

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, chairman of the House of Representatives appropriations committee, lamented the failure of the Senate to approve the proposed P1.16-billion additional funding for schoolchildren with dengue infection on Wednesday.

The House rushed the passage of the augmentation bill on Tuesday night so senators could approve it on the last session day before the annual mandatory adjournment of Congress.    

Nograles said he was “sad that unforeseen circumstances led to the failure of the Senate to approve the supplemental budget to aid the 900,000 children inoculated with Dengvaxia.”

He added the approval of the additional dengue funding by the House and the Senate would have brought “peace of mind closer to the parents of schoolchildren vaccinated with Dengvaxia even as we all hope that the worst-case scenario doesn’t happen to them.” 

“However, all is not lost. It is imperative that the government should continue providing assistance to the victims,” he said.

He called on the Department of Health (DOH) to use its 2018 budget to help schoolchildren with dengue infection. – With Jess Diaz