PIA FURIOUS OVER NON-PASSAGE OF AFFORDABLE MEDICINES BILL;
CHIDES HOUSE LEADERSHIP FOR RESURRECTING PARLIAMENTARY SHIFT

Senate Health and Demography Committee Chairperson Senator Pia S. Cayetano today expressed "extreme disappointment" over the failure of the leadership of the House of Representatives to muster a quorum to pass its own version of the "Affordable Medicines Act" (Senate Bill 2263) before the adjournment of the 13th Congress this week.

Echoing the sentiments of the bill's main sponsor, Sen. Mar Roxas III, Senator Pia said: "I believe it's fairly clear in the minds of the public who the real culprits are. The House leadership only has itself to blame for bungling this one last opportunity to have this urgent bill enacted in the 13th Congress. I'm sure that if they really wanted a quorum, the House leadership could have easily produced one. Ultimately, they would have to answer to the people."

"But what's really infuriating is how some House members are even blaming the bill's non-passage to the Senate's supposedly 'faulty' version. That's plain non-sense!" lamented Cayetano, Roxas' co-sponsor of Senate Bill 2263.

"Why did some congressmen assume that the differences cannot be reconciled? We've seen in the past how seemingly irreconcilable differences between the House and Senate versions were patched up at the bicameral conference committee. If senators and congressmen are able to settle major disagreeing provisions in a more complex measure like the General Appropriations Act, then what more for this fairly simple and straightforward bill?" she asked.

"But then again, what's there to reconcile without an approved version from the House? Without a quorum, the House can't do official business."

The lady senator also chided the House leadership for resurrecting the proposal to shift to a unicameral parliamentary system at yesterday's special plenary session celebrating the centennial of the Philippine Assembly.

"I think it's the height of insensitivity that the House leadership has started talking about pushing Charter Change in the next Congress when it could have concentrated first on passing urgently needed measures in the remaining sessions of this Congress," she said, adding that other important bills approved by the Senate like the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act, UP Charter Bill and the Human Rights Compensation Act were also casualties of the lack of quorum in the House.

"The House's lame excuse is that the last days of session are traditionally spent for ceremonials. Does that mean that we have to stick to tradition at the expense of vital legislation that needs enactment? What a sad state this institution has come to."

"I hope it's not a preview of things to come in the 14th Congress. We legislators owe our mandate to the people, and it's just right that we prioritize legislative measures that the people genuinely need," she concluded.