LP: LIE FACTORIES WORKING 24/7 VS NOY, MAR

Liberal Party senatorial candidate Akbayan Rep. Riza Hontiveros today said rival political camps have set up well-oiled and sufficiently-funded ‘lie factories’ to carry out a massive smear campaign against LP standard-bearers Senators Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas.  

“Desperate candidates resort to reckless tactics to improve their survey figures, especially if these follow a downward trend despite the millions of pesos spent on print, TV and radio ads,” Hontiveros said.  

She said such ‘lie factories’ are now in operation 24/7 with specific instructions to carry out a massive black propaganda against Aquino’s and Roxas’ candidacies and to fabricate issues against them.  

One of these, she added, is operated by Iloilo Rep. Ferjenel Biron and former Rep. Rolex Suplico and financed by Nacionalista vice presidential race perennial second-placer Loren Legarda.  

Biron and his family owns Philippine Pharmawealth Inc. and Pharmawealth Laboratories that former Health Secretary Alberto Romualdez suspended from getting medicine supply contracts from government hospitals and agencies for supplying substandard medicines.  

The Biron-Suplico-Legarda factory, Hontiveros said, is now working overtime to manufacture trivial and rehashed issues against Roxas, crediting different paid hacks. They likewise produce anti-Roxas propaganda such as full-page newspaper advertisements, slanted and malicious news articles and offensive and false text messages and electronic mail blasts, among others.

A full-page advertisement demanding that Roxas make a public explanation on why he insisted on enacting a watered-down version of the Cheaper Medicines law, which he principally authored, came out in newspapers today. A full-page advertisement in major broadsheets costs between P180,000 and P230,000.

“Paulit-ulit na lang ang mga isyung inilalabas nila. Hayaan na lang nating ang taumbayan ang humusga kung nakabuti nga ba o hindi para sa kanila ang Cheaper Medicines law,” Hontiveros said, adding: “Mahirap namang itago ang katotohanan, lalo na’t pati ang kalaban ni Mar Roxas na si Loren Legarda ay nakikinabang din naman sa Cheaper Meds.”

“Ginagastusan talaga ng aming mga katunggali ang black propaganda laban sa amin. Kitang-kita na bahagi lamang ang lahat ng ito ng isang malawakang sabwatan para hilahing pababa ang survey rating ni Mar,” she also said.

Roxas has been consistently leading in all pre-election vice presidential preferences survey conducted by independent polling firms.  He has kept a double-digit lead over his rivals in the vice presidential race despite his limited television and radio campaign advertisements.

Hontiveros, co-author of the Cheaper Medicines law, insisted prices of medicines have been slashed by as much as 70% despite an attempt by big pharmaceutical companies to co-opt President Arroyo into not implementing the law’s Maximum Retail Price (MRP) provision.

“Isang gamot lang naman ang hindi maaari kailanman masaklawan ng Cheaper Medicines law. At ito ay ang gamot para sa mga desperado, kung sakaling meron ngang gamot para rito,” she said.

She added the Roxas version was much better than the Biron-Suplico versions as it did away with the creation of a graft-prone Drug Price Regulatory Board, which would have been granted monopolistic powers over drug pricing, displacing anew the interests of the public.

She said that contrary to misleading information, such Drug Price Regulatory Board, which includes representatives from the multi-dollar pharmaceutical industry as members, would not have allowed an 80-90% price reduction in medicines because this would adversely affect the multinational companies’ profits.

“Papayag ba naman ang mga abusadong kumpanya ng gamot na ibaba ang presyo ng kanilang mga produkto ng ganito kalaki? Siyempre, hindi. Haharangin nila ang anumang pagbaba ng presyo ng kanilang mga itinitinda dahil ang kapalit nito ay mas mababang kita para sa kanila,” he added.

03-26-2010