Will Mar still be Noynoy's chief economic officer?

I realize the NoyMar folks do not want to entertain the thought that Mar lost the election to Jojo Binay. But it may be time to move on. What is bugging the business sector now is not so much whether Mar will be the Vice President or if it really is Jojo Binay. What many in the business community would like to know is: what exactly will Mar’s role be in a Noynoy administration if he loses the election?

There were many who were convinced to vote for Noynoy on the strength of his declaration that he will share powers and responsibilities with Mar. In fact, he talked about delegating as much as 80 percent of his responsibilities to his running mate specially on economic matters.

There should be no problem keeping that promise, win or lose. Even if there is a one year ban before Mar could be appointed to any government position, there is nothing that would prevent Noynoy from having Mar at his side to help deal with the various economic issues that must be dealt with immediately.

I noticed that many business groups, including foreign and local chambers of commerce, are eagerly waiting for the new administration to take over. A number of them are feverishly meeting in attempts to draft their hundred day prescriptions for the new President.

There is no doubt the business sector had been energized by the victory of Mr. Aquino. And there is a need to keep the enthusiasm up through well thought out moves that builds on the rising confidence sentiment.

For instance, the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) and the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC) are said to be organizing a conference where businessmen will help create a blueprint for the country’s economic upturn under the Aquino administration. On the other hand, a local group, the Fair Trade Alliance (FairTrade), is asking the new administration for important policy changes.

The FTC wants Noynoy to review and overhaul the country’s trade-liberalization policy and intensify anti-smuggling efforts to allow local industries and the farm sector to withstand the influx of competition from imported goods. While there really is no way we can ignore the fact that the world is now one global market, we can understand the pain of our local manufacturing industries too.

Former senator Wigberto Tañada, lead convenor of FairTrade, wants the new President to increase allocations for productivity-enhancing programs both in the farm and industrial sectors to improve our competitiveness. Basic agricultural services, the former senator said, should be given substantial allocation to improve the country’s irrigation system, technology support, crop insurance, credit and farm-to-market roads.

For manufacturing, the trade group wants the government to “allocate resources aimed at developing forward and backward linkages in crucial commodity sectors, and in supporting domestic enterprises, such as through the extension of affordable credit, technology support and human-resource development, among others.”

 Those suggestions should indeed be at the core of the new administration’s economic program. While it may not be possible to turn back the tide of trade liberalization, nor should we want to do that, we have to work double time to improve competitiveness so we can catch up with our regional neighbors.

Noynoy, the economics student of Ate Glue at the Ateneo, should prove himself better than the teacher. In the case of Ate Glue, she knew the right principles but chose to ignore all those in favor of political pragmatism. Noynoy, the student, should learn from the teacher’s mistakes. And with Mar at his side, the enthusiasm of the business and investing community could be very easily maintained.

Health warning

I would like to express my support to Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral in her current dispute with the manufacturers and marketers of so-called “health supplements.” The only thing Dr. Cabral wanted to do was to translate to Tagalog a warning label already required of these herbal or alternative supplements.

The warning on the label of these products says the product has “No Approved Therapeutic Claim”. The new tag that would replace the old English tag reads: “Mahalagang Paalala: Ang (name of the product) ay hindi gamot at hindi dapat gamiting panggamot sa anumang uri ng sakit.” That in truth, is the unadulterated meaning of the technical gobbledygook “No Therapeutic Claim.”

For ordering the translation, Dr Cabral was sued by the alternative health products group before the Ombudsman. That’s plain harassment, as far as I can see. The Health Secretary is being bullied from doing her duty. Hindi naman talagang gamot ang mga yun at hindi dapat gamiting gamot sa anumang uri ng sakit.

Apparently, the industry is afraid that a warning in Tagalog would clearly be understood by the public, many of whom have the impression that the herbal products and health supplements are medicines meant to cure diseases. I will grant that some of these have nutritional value and when properly used, can help us deal with some diseases.

Nutritionals, as some of these products are properly called, have their role in our health care. Some of these nutritionals have even been accepted by mainstream medicine as being helpful. A good example is fish oil. It is a good way of helping our body deal with bad cholesterol. I take fish oil regularly myself. But I use it in combination with a statin drug to deal with my high cholesterol problem.

I will also grant that in some extreme cases, herbals other than nutritionals, have been able to deal with some ailments as serious as cancer. But then again, we don’t really know if it was the herbal medicine, the right attitude about dealing with a deadly disease or just plain luck and/or placebo effect that did it.

I come from a family of doctors and my late father, a professor at the UST College of Medicine, was involved in drug testing during his career. He introduced me to the merits of double blind testing for pharmaceuticals. I doubt if most of these herbals could prove their worth and their safety in such double blind tests. Sure, people should be allowed access to these herbals but they must be warned that in most cases, there are no scientific proofs that these work. And we have no idea what are the side effects of these herbals.

I will concede that there are also many instances when modern pharmaceuticals have caused death and injury even after many tests and even after being certified by agencies like the US FDA. But if that can happen in cases when strict testing protocols are in effect, you can imagine the danger in herbals where all we have is the word of the herbal practitioner and folklore.

Before the change was ordered by Dr Cabral, I was already bothered by massive advertising of these so called herbal remedies. In all instances, they have been making pretty serious claims that they work to cure the illness they claim to cure. They also say these drugs are safe. Neither claims can be scientifically substantiated.

 Yet, the Advertising Board is allowing those commercials. I know from experience, albeit a few decades old, that the ad screening committee of the self regulatory advertising board is normally very strict in requiring validation of claims. I have been wondering how they can get away making their outrageous claims of preventing or curing disease in their media advertising. Maybe the ad board had loosened their standards and self regulation is failing. It may be time for the Health department to regulate advertising for these products too.

In ordering the change in the warning label, Secretary Cabral is merely carrying out her sworn duty to protect the public by at least making sure manufacturers and distributors of such products do not mislead them through false, deceptive or misleading advertisements, promotion or other marketing materials.

Wrong answer

Marilyn Mana-ay Robles sent this one.

Wife asks husband: “How many women have you slept with?”

Husband proudly replies: “Only you, Darling - With all the others, I was wide awake..!”

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Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. This and some past columns can also be viewed at www.boochanco.com <http://www.boochanco.com/>