Affordable medicine in poor communities

Caloocan City residents can now avail of affordable and high quality medicine following the simultaneous opening yesterday of at least 20 outlets of barangay-based drugstores in the city.

Rep. Luis "Baby" Asistio and Malacañang representative Berna Romulo-Puyat, chief of Barangay Bureau-Office of Political Coalition Affairs, led the coordinated opening of the Botika ng Barangay (BnB) at 20 depressed communities in the second and first districts of Caloocan.

"The Botika ng Barangay program is part of our integrated and comprehensive approach for the health development of Caloocan City residents which shall endeavor to make essential goods and services, particularly in health, acceptable to all at a very affordable cost," Asistio said.

Part of Asistio’s Serbisyong Pang-Habangbuhay health project, the opening of the Botika ng Barangay outlets — 13 in the first district and seven in the second district — was also made possible in coordination with the Department of Health, Bureau of Foods and Drugs, the Kalookan Assistance Council Inc. and the Office of first district Rep. Oscar Malapitan and Councilor Maca Asistio III.

"The project will somehow give hope to the poor people and remove the impression, especially among those in depressed areas, that the government doesn’t care for them," Asistio said.

The congressman said the Botika ng Barangay is one of the pro-poor priority projects of President Arroyo aimed at providing underprivileged residents with safe and affordable high quality over-the-counter, generic and herbal medicines and selected prescription drugs for common illnesses.

"Our efforts, together with those of government agencies, are a manifestation of our noble purpose to uplift the image of governance. There is no politics in public service," Asistio, an opposition congressman, said.

According to Cenon Mayor, KACI president and pointman of BnB in Caloocan City, at least 40 more BnBs would be put up in more poor areas in the city.

The drug stores, which would be manned by trained personnel in supervision of licensed pharmacists, would offer at least 24 over the counter drugs.

Among the first barangays that were given licenses to operate during yesterday’s launching of the barangay-based drug stores in Barangay 39, were Barangays 8, 13, 28, 39, 117, 123, 102, Phase 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10 in Bagong Silang, Phases 12 in Tala, Bagumbong, and Bagong Barrio. – Pete Laude