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A FUNNY thing happened to the Universally Accessible Cheaper and
Quality Medicines Act on its way to the presidential palace. It got
lost. This is what some Filipinos and the sponsors of the bill
suspect. They fear the bill may have not reached the Office of the
President. Mrs. Gloria Arroyo to this day has not signed the bill.
Sen. Mar Roxas, the principal author of the
bill, said it has been a week since the congressional conference
committee ratified the measure. President Arroyo declared support
for the legislation.
Perhaps the bill may not have been lost or
misplaced at all but is idling in Mrs. Arroyo’s “In” box. If
that’s the case, why is the President taking her time?
Roxas recalled that the President urged the
House leaders and sponsors of the bill to withdraw the
“generics-only” provision to facilitate enactment and to hasten
the signing. She also favored scrapping the price control board
proposed in the House version. The bill would have made a perfect
gift on Labor’s Day.
So why, as of Wednesday, has she not picked up
the pen for a signing ceremony in the company of congressional
leaders, sponsors and consumer groups?
It’s timely to recall the warning aired by
Health Undersecretary Alex Padilla at the Kapihan sa Manila that
some pharmaceutical multinationals might make a last-minute attempt
to derail the bill to protect their profits.
We honestly doubt President Arroyo would listen
to the drug giants, their lobbyists or their supporters in Malacañang.
There must be a good reason for her procrastination.
She has two other options: either veto the bill
or let it lapse into law. “It would be unfortunate if she just
allows the bill to lapse into law,” Roxas said.
Right. With all the heavings and exertions on
the cheaper medicine bill, inaction would be a lapse in leadership.
The case of the lost holiday
NEITHER the Universally Accessible Cheaper and
Quality Medicines Act nor the bill raising the tax exemption for
low-salaried workers made it on Labor Day.
The administration promised a nonwage benefit
package but the two measures and another pledge to increase the
daily minimum wage were not in it.
Malacañang did announce a salary increase for
government workers but that is provided for in the 2008 national
budget passed in March, implementation to begin in June.
There wasn’t much to cheer for on this Labor
Day. The usual hoopla was gone. The day passed without its customary
spirit.
Previous Labor Day celebrations were held at the
Quirino Grandstand or the presidential palace to demonstrate
strength and national purpose. Mainstream labor would be
represented, new labor policies or benefits announced, and the
President delivered the central message.
On May 1, 2008, the organizers moved the program
to the World Trade Center building on Roxas Blvd. President Arroyo
failed to attend the program and the vice president represented her.
The labor leaders did not hide their disappointment.
The President spent May 1 breathing down the
necks of the regional wage boards that covered metropolitan Manila
and Region 3. There wasn’t much she could do because without
management consent, the government-labor representatives could not
move.
The main Labor Day celebrations took place on
the streets where militants pressed their demands and repeated their
slogans.
Ironically, Malacañang exempted May 1, which
fell on a Thursday, from the sacrosanct holiday-economics calendar,
refusing to move it to a Friday, in deference to organized labor’s
request.
Workers’ Day tepidness also draws from the
declining fortunes of organized labor. Only 6 to 7 percent of the
workers are organized. Only 230,000 of 30 million workers are
covered by collective bargaining agreements (CBAs).
With that experience, we could copy from the
American Labor Day, observe the holiday on the first Monday of May,
without programs, parades and presidential perorations, but simply
as a day of rest in honor of the workingman.
. . . and the missing plane
ON November 26, 2007, a Philippine Air Force
S2-11 flew off from Puerto Princesa to search for Filipino fishermen
reported missing in the vicinity of the Kalayaan Group on the South
China Sea, and was never heard from again.
The S2-11 was one of two aircraft on a search
mission. At some point, the second plane lost contact with its
partner. Only one plane returned to base.
To this day, the PAF could not explain what
happened to the aircraft or tell us about the whereabouts of the
pilots, Capt. Gavino Mercado Jr. and Capt. Bonifacio Soriano 3rd.
Whether the plane malfunctioned, became a victim
of unfriendly weather, shot down by hostile forces or had sought
refuge elsewhere could not be explained by the government.
The families and colleagues of the two pilots
have urged the PAF not to give up the search. The officers are
officially listed as “missing crew.”
We hope PAF chief Lt. Gen. Pedrito Cadungog
would not develop amnesia over this case.
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