By Egay Uy
UNTIL today, I have not received any word from the Department of Health on what it intends to do as regards what appears to be unconscionable and exorbitant prices of medicines in pharmacies inside private hospitals.
All that the DOH has so far said, to my knowledge, is that it “has no authority in the control of drug prices x x x and do not have the guidelines or any legal document as basis that DOH will have to control the drug prices of those in the private sector.”
It has not even hinted on making a move to verify the veracity of the issue that I raised before it and before the city council’s committee on trade and commerce under Councilor George Goking. Sadly, the DOH snubbed the committee meeting, remember?
Should this issue be allowed to die down by the seeming indifference of the DOH? I say “No,” it shouldn’t.
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Another public concern that has to be addressed immediately is the chaos caused by the Land Transportation Office’s reported suspension of the operation of smoke-belching testing centers that resulted in the inconvenience, and probably even imposition of heavy fines for late vehicle registration, to motor vehicle owners.
As monitored as of this writing, there are only four or six smoke emission testing centers in the city that should cater to thousands of vehicle owners who will renew their car registrations at the LTO.
What does this mean? A vehicle owner has to queue before an available testing center starting as early as two o’clock in the morning to get his vehicle tested – that is, if he is lucky. Why should vehicle owners go through this kind of ordeal?
The LTO should provide the numbers: how many registrations are processed in that office every month? Divide this by the culled number of testing centers. Then we will have a clearer picture of the burden upon car owners.
Maybe the decision-makers at the LTO do not feel the pulse on the ground because they only stay in their air-conditioned rooms, air-conditioned government vehicles, and air-conditioned residences. Moreover, maybe because they can readily pay (from which pocket I won’t venture a guess) errand boys to do the “dirty part” of the process for them.
Get your acts together, Sirs or Madams!
(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team. He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)
