Void like the plague BREAKTIME

Alarm bells sounded off recently in the P190-billion a year local pharmaceutical sector over a mysterious action by the Department of Health (DOH).

Its boss, Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Ubial, just slashed the budget of the Food and Drugs Administration, or FDA, by a whopping P1.2 billion.

And nobody in the DOH could point to any reason behind the big cut!

As policeman of the pharmaceutical industry, the FDA recently launched a campaign against this plague infecting millions of Filipinos called “fake.”

That was actually the generic term for medicines, food products and cosmetics that were not registered with the FDA. (Breaktime, March 27, 2017)

From what I gathered, a big portion of the FDA budget slash was the allotment of the FDA to enforce the drive against the “fake” plague.

Ever since mankind first learned how to tame fire, the FDA has been the target of criticism for the proliferation of “fake” products.

Without much ado, the FDA explained its failure with its lack of personnel to enforce the law.

But its new director general, the never-say-die Nela Charade Puno, chose a down-toearth solution: She sought the support of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

PNP Director General Ronaldo dela Rosa even announced to the public that the police would back up the FDA campaign.

In other words, the PNP would use its manpower to stop the syndicates behind the “fake” products, most of them coming from abroad.

Of course everybody knew that the PNP enjoyed the most favored status among government agencies in the administration of the motorbiking Duterte Harley.

Obviously the syndicates behind the plague wanted to avoid the ire of Duterte Harley, and they supposedly took serious notice of the FDA campaign.

But from what I heard, with the P1.2-billion cut in the FDA budget, the pharmaceutical industry was worried about the success rate of the campaign. And that would be bad! Let us not even talk about how those “fake” products could hurt the bottom lines of pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies that employed thousands.

It would be the public that would take the brunt of the ill effects of counterfeit unregistered drugs.

To top it all, when people died from counterfeit drugs, the public would certainly blame the legitimate manufacturer for one simple reason: “Fake” drugs bore their trademarks.

And so only one thing could be certain: The decision of the DOH to slash the budget of the FDA would make the merchants of the plague quite happy.

As I said, the reason behind the FDA budget slash of course remained a mystery, although word went around about the “intramurals” in the DOH.

Career official Ubial was one of the three Cabinet members who have yet to get the confirmation of the Commission on Appointments.

As a result, it was said she could be losing her hold somewhat over the DOH—plus its attached agencies like the FDA.

In the middle of this “silent war” in the DOH, some groups supporting Ubial would surely still try to consolidate her authority.

Her inner circle in the DOH nevertheless could be feeding her some damaging advice, such as the ouster of the head of PhilHealth, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

Its former head, medical doctor Hildegardes Dineros, went on record in public that he was merely “forced to resign.”

Ubial also happened to be PhilHealth chair, and she complained that Dineros reappointed people in PhilHealth without the authority to do so.

Dineros nevertheless said that Ubial wanted him to be a “team player.” However, he said he would rather resign than be a lameduck president.

Reports suggested that Dineros also refused to sign a multimillion-peso investment plan of PhilHealth, which perhaps did not make him a “team player.”

In the case of the FDA, it seemed that its boss, Puno, also got the tag of “not a team player,” resulting in the P1.2-billion budget slash.