LOREN ‘DELIRIOUS’ ABOUT CHEAP MEDS LAW—BAUTISTA

Nacionalista Party (NP) vice-presidential candidate Loren Legarda, already desperate over her failing poll numbers, may have been delirious in trying to pull down her main rival when she insisted that the Iloilo Rep. Ferjenel Biron and Iloilo vice-governor Rolex Suplico were the principal authors of the the Cheaper Medicines Law, the Liberal Party said today.   

At the same time, Liberal Party (LP) senatorial candidate Dr. Martin Bautista slammed what he called were “desperate” moves by Legarda’s camp in coming up with full-page advertisements in broadsheets and tabloids to try to persuade the public that the approved version of the Cheaper Medicines Act was a “watered down” version compared with that of Biron and Suplico.  

Bautista said that in Legarda’s “daydreaming” she could pull down the poll numbers of her main rival LP vice-presidential bet Senator Manuel Roxas, she had resorted to twisting the facts of history to suit her need.  

“The continued attacks against Roxas on the Cheaper Medicines Law showed how the Legarda has become so desperate. They must be having delusions over there,” Bautista said.  

Bautista cited an earlier statement made by Makati Rep. Teddy Boy Locsin in a radio interview that the alleged Biron-Suplico version was “biased” in favor of multinational drug companies and Biron’s own pharmaceutical company so that they can be granted licenses by the government for parallel importation and monopolize pricing of essential medicines.  

During the bill’s deliberations, Roxas had insisted that Congress should put the power to impose maximum drug retail prices directly in the hands of the President, who is directly accountable to the people, instead of a Drug Price Regulatory Board proposed by the Biron-Suplico bill that will not be transparent and that will have representatives from pharmaceutical companies as members.  

“It is clear that the Biron-Suplico version would prove to be ineffective considering the intense lobbying of multinational drug companies. Legarda cannot admit that Roxas’ version is the effective version because it is the President, upon recommendation of the health department, who would exercise the power to slash prices of essential medicines,” said Bautista.  

Bautista added that Legarda even failed to cite Locsin as one of the strongest supporters of the bill during its deliberations.  

Roxas began his advocacy for quality and affordable medicines decades back when he was still Representative of Capiz in 1990 when he pushed for a bill to lower prices of medicines. When he was appointed as Secretary of Trade and Industry, he pioneered the importation of affordable medicines from other countries, which were sold in “Botika ng Bayan” they established. As the country’s chief negotiator in the World Trade Organization, he led third world nations negotiate and pass the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and public health.  

As soon as he was elected senator, he pushed for the Cheaper Medicines Act, which was passed in the 14th Congress. The law got almost approved in the 13th Congress, but it was not passed in the House of Representatives because of lack of quorum in its latter session days. Furthermore, it was during that time that the intense lobbying of multinational pharma in the House of Representatives to block the law’s passage.  

Roxas has vowed to continue the fight for more affordable medicines and closely monitor compliance by multinational drug companies and pharmacies with the law.

04-15-2010