While on his visit to New Delhi, the President expressed interest in cooperating with India in order to provide cheaper medicines to our people.
India is one of the world’s largest producers of medicines, and compared to how much Western-labeled medicines in the Philippines, these are way, way below in price. As every medical drug needs certification of its efficacy and validation of its claims from the Food and Drug Administration, people’s prejudice against “unknown” brands should be allayed.
Here in Taiwan, most medicines are about a third of the price of the same generic medical prescriptions as in the Philippines, some even less. And their health insurance system, enjoyed even by our OFWs, takes care of prescription drugs, free of charge.
I discussed the wonders of Taiwan’s health insurance and health care system in a previous article, and indeed, it is one of the world’s best.
Our office tried in previous years to get PhilHealth personnel to observe and be trained on Taiwan’s health insurance system, and Taiwan was very willing to assist and give free training. But , PhilHealth wanted Taiwan to shoulder even the airfare of its personnel, claiming non-availability of funds.
Yet if you hear the horror stories about how PhilHealth funds are being milked dry by racketeers in the medical profession and their cohorts, you wonder why they could not even provide airfare for personnel to be trained for free. Oh well.
The problem with our country is that oligarchic interests prevail in almost every industry, be it media, or telecoms, or basic services like power and water, practically everything, including life-saving medicines.
The President is right about sourcing cheaper medicines elsewhere. And our physicians and medical practitioners should also wean themselves away from their purely Western orientation. But that’s another story.
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While we are not into absolving anyone on the Dengvaxia mess, especially those who either by sheer incompetence or even corruption, or both, are involved in it, we also have to condemn those purveyors of panic who are blaming the mass inoculation of the vaccine for practically every death.
Let us wait for the experts among our scientific community before jumping to conclusions that every child inoculated with the Sanofi vaccine died of dengue complications attributable to the drug.
Worse, it is easy to see that those who dream of becoming senators of the realm in the scheduled 2019 elections, or who want to become the next health secretary are the ones stoking the flames of panic into the hearts of the people.
The irresponsibility of these scare-mongers has caused a deadly problem. So many parents now refuse to have their kids inoculated against other types of diseases, even if these are not for dengue. You can imagine the dire effects of this phenomenon on our children’s future.
If buying an untested vaccine and rushing the use of the same by our children is criminal enough, especially if politics or money influenced the decision during the waning days of the previous administration, so is using the Dengvaxia scare for “pogi” points and political mileage.
Is there nothing sacred enough in this country for personal, vested and political interests to spare?
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Speaking of elections, there will be one to elect 12 senators and a host of local officials come May of 2019, under the terms of the 1987 Constitution.
The timeline initially proposed by House leaders is too tight, which would have the people vote in a plebiscite by May of 2018, simultaneous with the barangay elections. As of now, with the leaders of the Senate and the House agreeing to sit together to discuss commonalities of amendment proposals and putting the contentious issue of voting jointly or separately in the back-burner, and the President finally appointing 19 of 25 commissioners in a consultative commission for Charter change, the likelihood is, and this is still a big IF, that ratification of the proposed amendments can only be done simultaneous with the 2019 mid-term elections.
Remember that with our computerized voting system, candidates for the 2019 elections need to file their certificates of candidacy by October of this year. By that time, the proposed “constituent assembly” will not have been able to agree on the amendments, let alone agree on the mechanics of revision.
Also, there is the national budget for 2019 to consider, for one. There is TRAIN Part Two. There is the Rice Tariffication Act to replace the quantitative restrictions we have been imposing, and which has expired June 30, 2017 after several extensions. All these are urgent.
Which is probably for the better. While this writer agrees that the unitary form has not served the country well, especially those in the countryside, rushing a systemic change with all its contentious ramifications, could be a recipe for disaster.
But the process must begin, and the president we elected in 2016 on a promise of genuine and meaningful change, should be cloaked with the vast powers currently given under the 1987 Constitution to proceed with his reforms.
Meanwhile, let us all participate in the debate.