MORE LIES FROM LP’S POLL RIVALS OUT – GASCON

Voters have seen through the web of lies spun by rivals of Liberal Party standard bearers Senator Benigno S. Aquino III and Senator Mar Roxas and would not be hoodwinked into voting for candidates who have perennial lied to them, a ranking official of the Liberal Party said today.  

LP Director General Chito Gascon today said the public has had enough of the smear drive launched by the camps of the LP bets’ rivals, especially the latest spin of lies by Rep. Frejenel Biron and Vice-Governor Rolex Suplico of Iloilo regarding the Cheaper Medicines Law that they put out through expensive advertisements. 

"Mabuti na lang at nakikita na natin ngayon sa mga surveys na ang mga kapwa nating Pilipino ay 'di ihahalal ang isang administrasyong may mga miyembrong kasinggaling na magsinungaling katulad nitong si Congressman Biron (It’s good we can see in the surveys this early that voters will not elect a government that is as good in lying as Congressman Biron)," he said, referring to Iloilo Rep. Ferjenel Biron.  

Biron and his minion, Iloilo Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico, are candidates of the Nacionalista Party whose standard-bearers, Senator Manuel Villar for president and Senator Loren Legarda for vice-president, have been trailing Aquino and Roxas in pre-election surveys despite a barrage of black propaganda and negative campaigning against the LP tandem. 

Biron owns Pharmawealth, Inc. that has been banned by the Department of Health for selling to government hospitals substandard medicines that caused the death of a pregnant mother and forced four others to under hysterectomy in Bohol province in 2000. 

He and Suplico have been deployed by the Villar-Legarda tandem to attack Roxas on the Cheaper Medicines Law, which the Ilonggo senator primarily authored.  

Among their claim against Roxas was that Biron was the original author of the law when the truth is Biron became congressman only in 2001 and Roxas had submitted the bill in the House when he was still a Capiz congressman in 1991 and pursued it in the Senate till it passed into law in 2008. 

The latest false allegation by Biron and Suplico, which usually come in expensive paid advertisements in broadsheets and tabloids, alleged that Roxas’ version was watered-down variety of their proposal allowed only a maximum of 50% mandatory discount on medicine prices when Biron’s version mandated as much as 90% discount 

Gascon said that contrary to public claims, the Biron-Suplico version of the law did not specify any amount of mandatory discount on prices of essential medicines. What it sought was a drug pricing agency that would be controlled by Biron’s allies since it would have been created under the current administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

"Ang totoo ay walang ganyan sa pinanukala ni Biron. Nasa records ng Kongreso ‘yan (The truth is that there was no such provision in Biron’s version of the law. That’s in congressional records),” Gascon stressed.

“Pero nasa batas ang kapangyarihgan ng Pangulo na babaan ang presyo hanggang P5 kung ito ang rekomendasyon ng DOH at DTI. Kaya kung meron mang kasalanan dito, ito ay ang kaalyado ni Manny Villarroyo, Biron at Suplico na si Pangulong Arroyo na imbes na gamitin ang kanyang kapangyarihan ay nakipagkuntsabahan pa sa mga dambuhalang pharma companies para hindi sila pwersahing ibaba ang presyo ng kaniang gamot (But it is in the law that the President can reduce prices of medicines by as much as P5 if there is such a recommendation from the Department of Health and the Department of Trade and Industry. Now, the one to be blamed why prices did not go low as much as P5 is the ally of Manny Villarroyo, Biron and Suplico – President Arroyo – who instead of exercising her powers to force pharmaceutical companies to slash their prices had even conspired with them so she would not be forced to do it)," Gascon said.

04-26-2010