Mar goes to market EDITORIAL 09/09/2011

Mar goes to market

EDITORIAL

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09/09/2011
Noy’s designated troubleshooter Mar Roxas, appears to be shooting two birds with one stone, based on the US Embassy dispatches detailing his meeting with top US trade officials that appeared in the anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks.

Mar hyped himself up prior to the elections as a champion of the poor, a Mr. Palengke, a made up image that failed miserably in the face of his genuine pro-poor rival who eventually won the vice presidency, and mentioned extensively his sponsoring the Cheaper Medicines Act as proof, while in the background, apparently raising campaign money from giant drug companies by compromising on contentious provisions in the bill.

It was clear in the series of cables in which Mar was the topic that he sold out to the Americans who are apparently doing the bidding of huge multinational pharmaceutical firms in the crafting of the Cheaper Medicines Act that Roxas trumpeted as the salvation of the millions of poor Filipinos in accessing cures for their ailments.

A supposed centerpiece of the measure was the provision of generic drugs, the cost of which would have been far cheaper than medicines of multinational drug firms..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110909com1.html