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CONGRESSMEN vowed Tuesday to make the affordable and
quality medicines bill their Christmas gift to the
Filipino people.
Partido
ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr.
of Makati said, “It’s an old bill and old issue already.
People are waiting for it. . .We can consult the
previous hearings to make things easier for us. I think
the people want this as a Christmas gift.”
The bill
passed on final reading in the last Congress but did not
make it through the bicameral conference committee for
lack of time. There were 23 bills filed on cheaper
medicines on Tuesday.
“The
13th Congress blindly accepted the Mar Roxas bill. No
one knows about it. We are just playing with the bill. .
.It is in the interest of the foreign pharmaceutical
companies to delay the bill,” added Locsin.
Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino Rep. Antonio Alvarez of
Palawan, chairman of the Committee on Trade and
Industry, said that even though the issue had already
been debated thoroughly in the 13th Congress, he feels
that a new extensive discussion on the matter is
necessary so that neophyte House members would be able
to vote knowledgeably on the measure.
But
Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Arthur Pinggoy of
South Cotabato reminded the committee on the 45-day
timetable set by Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. for the
lower chamber to have it approved.
Alvarez
said, however, 45 days would be too short for his panel
to finish the deliberations on the bill since they are
also busy attending to other important bills such as the
proposed national budget for 2008.
“It’s
impossible I think; the Speaker will understand us. We
can expedite this if we can hold daily hearings.” He
said a “realistic timetable” would be to complete the
process in February next year.
He added
the House’s time-table should also not sacrifice the
content of the proposed law.
“We are
not after the speed but we are after the contents of the
bill to really address the high cost of medicines.”
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