GMA ready to sign medicine bill once legislative process complete

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo said she is ready to sign the Cheaper Medicines Bill into law but will have to wait first for the normal legislative process to take its course before giving the measure her imprimatur.

“I will sign it (bill) once it reaches my desk but they (lawmakers) would have to enroll it first,” Mrs. Arroyo told reporters yesterday.

She said she wants the signing ceremony to be meaningful since the bill’s passage represents a breakthrough in the administration’s effort to bring down the cost of medicines and other basic commodities.

Based on legislative procedures, the measure would have to be signed first by the secretary of the House of Representatives, then by the Speaker, the Senate secretary, the Senate president and finally by the President.

Shortly after the bill was ratified on Tuesday, Mrs. Arroyo thanked lawmakers for their “dedication and hard work.”

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye described the bill as a “major milestone” and that Malacañang would have signed it on Labor Day had it not been for the unfinished legislative requirements.

The President said she was satisfied with the version approved by the bicameral conference committee despite claims by some groups that Congress ratified a watered down bill.

She said her main concern is to help bring down the cost of medicines in the country, adding that lawmakers worked hard enough to achieve this end.

“I don’t know what version it is, frankly speaking,” Mrs. Arroyo said when asked whether she was satisfied with the approved bill. “But the essence is if we can bring down the price of medicine, that’s it.”

“I keep saying that my job as President is the strategic direction not the details,” she said.

She said she presumed that the lawmakers exercised their “good judgment” in hammering out an acceptable and effective measure.

“They are elected representatives of the people, so we trust that whatever they finally agreed on after long periods of debate must be the most practicable (version) that would bring about the desired results, but I was very happy to hear that it was ratified in both houses (of Congress),” she said.

Dissatisfied

A community health care advocacy group has raised doubts on the effectiveness of the Cheaper Medicines Bill citing the absence in the bill of a provision creating a drug price regulatory board.

Dr. Eleonor Jara, executive director of the Council for Health and Development (CHD), said the absence of such provision is a “glaring advantage for big pharmaceutical companies and major drug distributors and not for millions of ailing Filipinos.”

She added that enacting the measure without such provision “will only strengthen monopoly trade among big players in the drug industry and further banish local manufacturers into oblivion.”

Jara added that giving exclusive powers to the Secretary of Health and the President to set price ceilings on medicines is “obviously illogical and a manifestation of a lack of common sense.”

“CHD and the entire health sector as a whole cannot understand why Sen. (Mar) Roxas and the other legislators who share the same views veer away from the rules of logic,” she maintained.

The group also believes that the provision allowing parallel importation of patented drugs will only “further aggravate the country’s import dependence and stunt the development of the local drug industry.”

“A fitting example is the country’s dreadful experience on rice importation.  During the first waves of importation from neighboring countries in Asia, the price of imported rice was lower relative to the locally produced grain.  But as rice imports increased in volume, so did the prices,” Jara said.

She added that instead of being dependent on imports, the government should strive to develop a local drug industry and grant tax holidays to local drug manufacturers.

“The government should not give false hopes to millions of Filipinos who cannot afford to buy essential medicines. Senator Roxas’ optimism that a ‘free market’ would decisively lower drug price is sure to prove otherwise,” she said. “The health sector and the entire nation will not stop here. Even as the cheaper medicines bill is approved, the nation will stand guard against big business interests and assert their rights to affordable medicine.”  – With Sheila Crisostomo