[php-maint] Help needed: automatic dependency on phpapi-20131226 and php5enmod

[Gert Wollny]

Dear all, 

in one of the team maintained packages of debian-med that I recently
started top work on, gdcm, currently the following error happens at
install time if php5-common is not installed (Bug #810668): 

var/lib/dpkg/info/php5-gdcm.postinst: 4: /var/lib/dpkg/info/php5
-gdcm.postinst: php5enmod: not found
  dpkg: error processing package php5-gdcm (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit
status 127
  Errors were encountered while processing:

The according code has been manually added to the postinst script. 

The package build-depends on php5-dev and php5-cli, and the control
file adds a dependency to the virtual package phpapi-20131226 via
${php:Depends}. Now it seems that php5-common is the only package that
provides php5enmod and it is not the default that gets pulled in by
phpapi-20131226, instead php5.6-phpdbg is installed. 

Since php5-common is the only package that provides php5enmod and php5
-common is not in the default dependency chain of phpapi-20131226, I
have the following questions: 

Is the calls to  php5enmod and php5dismod in postinst and postrm
actually necessary, or can I remove these calls savely? 

If these calls are needed: Should I file a bug report against dh-php5
so that ${php:Depends} will be made to add the dependency on 
php5-common, or rather against php so that the dependency chain is set
properly to alway pull in php5-common via phpapi-20131226? 

Many thanks, 
Gert