After years of waiting for the passage of the much-contended legislation, the debacle over the Cheaper Medicines Bill hounds the public even after its celebrated passage in June of 2008.
To say that the campaign to pass the Cheaper Medicines Bill was difficult is a complete understatement.
The legislation with its noble purpose to ensure affordable medicines to Filipinos had gone through various controversies before it gained the passage it rightfully deserved.
Letter to the Editor:
Inquirer.Net : http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/letterstotheeditor/view_article.php?article_id=104447
Philippine Star: http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Letters%20to%20the%20Editor&p=49&type=2&sec=127&aid=20071205160
First of all, the Cheaper Medicine bill seeks to address the lack of affordable medicines for Filipinos. It does not replace the physicians’ authority and responsibility in determining the appropriate and safe treatment for their patients with the “practice-of-medicine-at-the-drugstore-counter,” as PCP alleges. In fact, the Cheaper Medicine bill seeks to broaden the medical treatment and options available for both the physicians and their patients by making medicines more accessible and affordable to the public.
Source:
Inquirer.Net
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20071024-96546/%91Mamita%2C%92_doctor%2C_activist%2C_dies
MANILA, Philippines -- Former social welfare secretary Mita Pardo de Tavera passed away last Tuesday after a battle with leukemia. She was 87.
Interment will be on Friday after a Mass at 1 p.m. at the Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati City.
Born to the illustrious Pardo de Tavera clan, “Mamita,” as she was called by people close to her, devoted more than six decades of her life to serving the needy.
After graduating from the University of the Philippines in 1944 with a degree in medicine, Pardo de Tavera worked at the Philippine Tuberculosis Society. It was an eye-opener for her. In a 1986 interview with Woman Today, she said, “That’s where I saw the imbalances, the wide disparity between the poor and the better-to-do.”
Source:
Inquirer.Net
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view_article.php?article_id=94353
MARAMAG, Bukidnon, Philippines--The stinking smell was made worse by the cramped and dilapidated room, where newly born babies, together with their mothers, share whatever space there is with other patients lying on old mattresses covered with pieces of carton.
The parents and their babies were supposed to have gone home but the Bukidnon Provincial Annex Hospital here has been holding them because they cannot pay their medical bills.
