EDITORIAL – Bawal magkasakit

Senator Mar Roxas is getting impatient, and this is one time that impatience may be a virtue. His impatience is being aroused by the suspicious delay it is taking for the president to sign into law the “cheaper medicines act” that both houses of Congress already passed.

Congress passed the measure before Labor Day, hoping to make the news of impending cheaper medicines a fitting gift to the people if no financial benefits were forthcoming by that time.

Actually, there were contentious issues that hounded the measure and split both houses until the president herself stepped in and broke the impasse. That was why the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council endorsed it as a priority.

So, if the president herself stepped in to ensure passage of the measure and the Ledac itself, about half of whose membership are her own people, consequently endorsed the finished product, how come she has not yet signed it?

That is why Roxas is perplexed, especially in light of what Health Undersecretary Alex Padilla himself said that maybe, just maybe, the giant multinational pharmaceutical firms who stand to be affected by the measure have started moving.

This is not to say that the president may succumb to pressure. But she cannot remain impervious to it as well. And this could be the reason why things are not moving as swiftly as they should.

There is a phrase in Tagalog that anchored the hugely successful advertising drive of a giant pharmaceutical firm. “Bawal magkasakit,” it says. True enough, with soaring costs as they are, people, especially the poor, just cannot afford to get sick.

And so, if the “cheaper medicines act” is one way to address that concern, the president should act on it with dispatch. Her signing is the only thing that is delaying it. Her greater concern should be the benefits to the people, not some other gain for only a few.