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ONE of the biggest casualties of the tug of war
between the Senate and the House of Representatives is the cheaper
medicines bill. The House failed to pass its version of the bill, HB
6035, during the last three sessions of the Thirteenth Congress, for
lack of quorum. By strange coincidence (or was it deliberate?), it
was also the lack of quorum that prevented the bill from being
passed on third reading during a special session called by President
Arroyo in February this year.
But the real casualties in this
power play between the two chambers are the sick Filipinos who could
die or are now dying simply because they could not afford to buy the
medicines that could cure their ailments.
A nationwide survey conducted by
the Philippine Heart Association in May 2007 showed that one out of
every Filipino, or roughly 7.76 million are suffering from
hypertension. Records of the Department also showed that
hypertension is the fifth leading cause of death in the Philippines.
In fact, in 2004 alone, it claimed over 300,000 lives.
This loss of lives could have
been prevented had Congress passed the measure that would have
allowed the importation of cheap medicines from countries like India
and Pakistan. One example is Norvasc, a maintenance medicine for
hypertension, which costs P41.41 per tablet here but is only P5.77
per tablet if imported. Another example is the Ventolin inhaler for
asthmatics, which is priced here are P315 but is only P126 in India.
Latest government records showed the 12 percent to 15 percent of our
total population is asthmatic.
Another distressing fact is that
at least 15 million Filipinos have no access to affordable medicines
and for those who have access, their budget for health expenses is a
measly P2,000 per person per year.
What our honorable congressmen
have done, therefore, is a criminal act. It is not dissimilar to
euthanasia or Hitler’s gas chambers where people were allowed to
die in a slow and agonizing death.
Instead of tackling the measure
to save lives, two of the main proponents of HB 6035,
Representatives Janette Garin and Fergenel Biron of Iloilo, have
resorted to rhetoric, branding the Senate version, Senate Bill 2236,
principally sponsored by Sen. Mar Roxas as populist, saying that it
would protect, instead of dismantle, the drug cartel in the country.
The Roxas bill would amend
Section 71 of Republic Act 8293, otherwise known as the Intellectual
Property Code of the Philippines, that pertains to patent laws on
drugs and medicines. It would allow the parallel importation, even
without the consent of the patent holders, of cheap medicines from
countries where branded medicines are sold at very low prices.
The reasoning of Garin and Biron
that the House version is more comprehensive and effective in
fighting the drug cartel is harebrained, if not an outright insult
to the people’s intelligence. Granting that theirs is superior to
the Roxas bill, they should have passed it on third reading so that
the differences of the two measures can be reconciled in the
bicameral committee.
I suspect that the House has
deliberately consigned the cheaper medicines bill to the archives
for two reasons.
One is that the multimillion-peso
lobby of the multinational drug firms has succeeded in stopping the
passage of the bill. This powerful lobby almost succeeded in killing
the bill when it was first deliberated in the House. In fact, on the
last day of the special session on February 20, two lawyers from the
Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association of the Philippines were thrown
out of the session hall after they passed a note to Makati Rep.
Teodoro Locsin asking him to question the quorum. This was an open
interference in the House proceedings by the lobby group.
This lobby group would stop at
nothing. There are disturbing reports that the same group had
bankrolled the campaign of candidates perceived ready to protect the
interest of the drug firms and prevent the passage of the cheaper
medicines bill. Is this the reason why majority of the congressmen
refused to attend the remaining sessions of the House of
Representatives? We are just asking.
The second reason is that there
now appears to be a concerted move among the members of the ruling
coalition in the House to snuff the presidential ambition of Senator
Roxas in 2010. If this is true, then our congressmen are playing
with the lives of our countrymen just to advance their political
interests. How sad.
malinaolito@yahoo.com
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