Loren on cheaper medicine act

CHEAPER MEDICINE ACT

The government must exercise political will to fully implement the purposes and provisions of the Cheaper Medicines Act. While the drug corporations have submitted a list of the medicines they propose should be covered by the law, the government must not necessarily be governed by such list, but should decide in the greater interest of the consumers, who are ill and mostly poor.
We should not allow the drug companies to interpret the law for us, because they would do so in their own favor. For so long they have exploited our people by charging excessive prices for their medicines sold in this country, even while they are priced much lower in other countries. The President must go ahead with the executive order setting the maximum prices for such medicines as determined by the law.
Medicines are essential items necessary for life itself. While the drug companies are entitled profit, including reserves for research, they should be reasonable and not exploitative.

LOREN LEGARDA

LOREN DISCUSES ABOUT DRUGS

Drug Menace
The kidnap and rape of a daughter of a government agent against illegal drugs shows that the drug syndicates are becoming bolder and bolder. Because of the billions of pesos they are raking from their illegal drug trade, the syndicates have also poisoned the political system by backing up candidates for public office who would later serve as their protectors in high office. Sometimes illegal drug traders themselves run for public office.
The government must smash the drug syndicates. But the fact that they are getting bolder, and penetrating politics and the government bureaucracy, proves the ineptness and perhaps connivance of some top officials in the government in this pernicious trade. If the present administration cannot stop the illegal drug trade, we must elect a new administration that is determined and capable of stopping it. We must save our children and future generations from illegal drugs.

LOREN LEGARDA

Loren bats for creation of Climate change commission in RP

Loren bats for creation of Climate change commission in RP
Thimpu, Bhutan (May 28, 2009) — Senator Loren Legarda yesterday batted for the creation of a Climate Change Commission in the Philippines as a first step toward addressing the impacts of climate change.
The chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change, Loren pushed for the passage of a bill by the Philippine congress creating the commission in an interview at the sidelines of an international conference held here on global climate change adaptation.
“The Philippines is well on the right track as far addressing climate change-induced problems are concerned,” said Legarda.
She came to address the international conference on climate change in this tiny kingdom in the Eastern hemisphere in her capacity as Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for the Asia-Pacific, a task bestowed on her by the United Nations International Strategy For Disaster Risk Reduction Secretariat.
Loren said Senate Bill No. 2583, otherwise known as the The Climate Change Act of 2009, incorporates her Committee’s amendments as well as the individual amendments of Senators Miriam Santiago and Pia Cayetano.
In addition to mainstreaming climate change in various phases of policy formulation and development planning, Loren added the bill highlights the synergy between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction as well as the importance of adopting a gender-sensitive outlook in addressing climate change in general.
The commission will be headed by no less than the President of the Philippines serving as its chairman, with the secretaries of different government agencies, the Presidents of the League of Cities, Municipalities and Barangay and the representatives from the academe, business sector, NGOs and civil society serving as ex-officio members.
The Commission is tasked to ensure the mainstreaming of climate change and disaster risk reduction into development plans and programs at all levels. It will also coordinate and synchronize climate change programs of national government agencies.
The commission will also formulate a Framework Strategy and Program on Climate Change and exercise policy oversight to ensure that the goals set are attained. It will strengthen Local Government Units to effectively address climate change issues; among others.
The commission may also recommend legislation, policies, strategies, programs on and appropriations for climate change adaptation; review and recommend the approval of major development investments in climate-sensitive sectors; create an enabling environment for the design of relevant and appropriate risk-sharing and risk-transfer instruments; create an enabling environment for the promotion of linkages between and encourage broader multi-stakeholder participation in climate change mitigation and adaptation; and formulate strategies on Green House Gas mitigation.
To aid the Commission in the discharge of its duties, a Climate Change Office shall serve as its secretariat which will be headed by an Executive Director.
The Framework Strategy and Program on Climate Change shall serve as the basis for planning, research and development, extension and monitoring of climate change activities, Loren said.

LOREN discuses the importance of Competitiveness

Competitiveness
Our country’s ranking in global competitiveness has sunk deeper from 40th to 43rd place among 57 countries. According to the 2009 World Competitiveness Yearbook, the Philippines fared worse among all four factors of competitiveness, namely, economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure. It is now lagging behind ASEAN nations Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
For the sake of our people, the government should stop bragging about its successful development efforts. Instead it should review its policies and performance and take immediate action to correct them. Of importance is infrastructure, which according to world economists, is the reason why we have failed to attract more direct foreign investments. Government inefficiency should be eliminated so that business and the people should have more confidence to engage in development activities.
Relying on spin doctors to prettify government performance will be self-defeating.

LOREN LEGARDA