MRP

ENQUIRY

DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

.

MRP
Sunday 07 19, 2009

Much has been alleged about the unholy collusion between the Executive and the pharmaceutical companies regarding the odd reluctance or the suspicious delay of Malacañang to issue an executive order setting the maximum retail price (MRP) of 21 essential drugs or a cut in their prices by more or less 50 percent. But nothing so far has been said about the undue interest of Sen. Mar Roxas in the implementation of the Cheaper Medicines Law (CML) — until yesterday, that is — when Iloilo Rep. Frejenel Biron lashed out at Roxas for using the CML as a springboard for his presidential ambition. Biron claims that Roxas should not be given the undeserved chance to profit from the law.

If Biron, the principal author of the CML (originally, House Bill No. 1 of the 14th Congress), were to be believed, MRP would not stand for "maximum retail price" of medicines. It would stand for something else derisive of the legislator who now claims to be responsible for the enactment of the law aimed at lowering the prices of medicines.

The original author of the bill way back during the 12th Congress, now Iloilo Vice Gov. Rolex Suplico, says in his usual colorful language that MRP stands for "Mar Roxas Peke."

My eternally disrespectful friend, Leina de Legazpi, has another take on those initials: "Mar’s Ride to the Presidency."

It is understandable why Biron and Suplico should have an ax to grind with Roxas. The erstwhile Mister Palengke and presently Roxas the presidentiable has suddenly projected himself to the public as Mister Murang Gamot, the thunderous advocate of the CML. But Biron and Suplico both feel that Roxas has unjustly stolen their thunder. And what makes things worse, as Biron and Suplico both claim, is that it was Roxas who was responsible for the removal of a provision in the CML that was designed to automatically reduce the price of medicines. If that provision had been adopted in the CML, Biron and Suplico assert, the price reduction would be more substantial — by as much as 80 percent — compared to the 50 percent reduction that the executive order is poised to implement.

The version of the bill filed by Biron and Suplico had called for the imposition of an automatic price regulation of local medicines. Their bill envisioned a market, 75 percent of which is presently controlled by a cartel which may or may not be in cahoots with Malacañang, to open up wide, allowing the sale of locally manufactured generic and off-patent medicines, which are cheaper in comparison to imported ones. Biron rued then, as he does now, the fact that imported, branded drugs are now being sold at prohibitive prices, when they could be actually sold for much less.

Roxas, on the other hand, was merely pressing for the parallel importation of drugs, which affects just around five percent of the total consumption of medicines by Filipinos. This stance of Roxas is hardly an effective approach to bring the price of medicines down to the reach of the sick and ailing masses.

With Roxas being unmasked by Biron and Suplico’s revelations, would it be reasonable to expect the public adopt a different attitude toward the otherwise genial Mister Palengke? If he could not be trusted with the Cheaper Medicines Law, could he be trusted with other important (if not more important) affairs that ail the State? If Roxas’ numbers fall in the next survey, it should come as no surprise to himself and his party. That is exactly what befalls those who pilfer and market ideas that are not theirs in the first place.

We wrote about this difference in approach by Biron and Roxas on bringing down the price of medicines in this column on Aug. 26, 2007. As we correctly stated then: "Election 2010 is three years away yet, but the LP and the NP are already skirmishing, choosing Congress as the flash point. Roxas is the LP’s presidential bet in 2010; Villar, the NP’s. That should explain the feud between these parties, this time over the Cheaper Medicines Bill which has been certified urgent for approval."

The way I saw it then, as I see it now, Biron is playing the role of surrogate fighter for presidentiable Manny Villar, taking Roxas head-on. (Villar himself had filed Senate Bill 90, a measure very much similar to Biron’s.) Ever the savvy and effete businessman, Villar would rather sit back and relax while viewing from a comfortable distance how his designated hitter is batting at the pre-election innings.

But just imagine: With Roxas’ version of the bill now enacted into law, Mister Palengke now has bragging rights to the MRP — which could also mean "Mar Roxas for President," a catchy acronym for catching the people’s votes, of course.

Meanwhile, Villar, because of his trademark reluctance to shy away from direct confrontation and unexplainable disinclination to appear in forums featuring other presidentiables, is left out there in the paddies with his itiks. Why he was not there at Plaza Miranda last Thursday, together with the other aspirants to the presidency who braved the rain to answer questions about their respective platforms of government, is strange and continues to puzzle a big number of the electorate.


For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph

The Daily Tribune © 2009