THE MINDANAO-BASED Suara Party List urged members of Congress Friday to approve the Cheap Medicine Bill or Senate Bill 2263, which is instrumental for the roll-back of medicines' prices in the Philippines.
Zaynab Ampatuan, National Deputy Secretary General of Suara Party, said the bill is of big help to the lives of millions of Filipinos who have been denied of basic health services due to government's insufficient budget on health.
"Health care is supposed to be our basic right but ironically it has been one of the least priorities of the government not only in terms of budget allocation but also with the legislations of laws that will mend access of Filipinos for medication." Ampatuan said in a statement.
"In fact, military budget for waging war against the people is a lot higher than the budget intended for basic services such as Health. Ampatuan said prices of medicines in Indonesia, Thailand and India are much cheaper than Philippines.
She said a known brand of inhaler for asthmatics, which is priced P406 in the Philippines, sells only P231 in Thailand. Some medicines, such as antibacterial drugs, are sold in the Philippines ten-times higher than the price in India.
"Can we not make it here in the Philippines? This way we can save lives of patients from dying simply because of expensive medicines," Ampatuan said.
Ampatuan, however, said that accessibility to cheaper medicines is just but one of the dilemmas faced by ordinary Filipinos. She pointed that it is useless to work for the "roll-back" of medicines' prices if wages of the workers or income of every family will not be boosted.
Suara Party is one of the organizations that fight for the ratification of the P125 a day wage increase bill or the Beltran's Bill authored by labor activist Rep. Crispin Beltran, who is now detained by government on rebellion charges.
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