by magnolia_eic | Apr 13, 2010 | Announcements, Headlines, Health and Medicine, National News
HEALTH Secretary Esperanza Cabral reiterated on Monday that all drugstores and hospital pharmacies should comply with the Government-Mediated Access Price (GMAP) program of the government to help ease the burden of the poor in accessing medicines.
In August 2009, the DOH through its regional Centers for Health Development and in coordination with various agencies and institutions, implemented the first round of GMAP and the Maximum Drug Retail Price (MDRP).
On March 31, another set of 98 products were offered for price cuts under the GMAP initiative by eleven (11) manufacturing firms.
Penalties imposed on violators are based on Republic Act No. 9502 (Cheaper Medicines Law) and its Implementing Rules & Regulations.
As of April 6, 123 drug retail outlets and hospital pharmacies in Metro Manila (78 drugstores and pharmacies) and other regions (45) were found to have violated the MDRP and GMAP since their implementation in August last year. As a consequence, these outlets have already been issued Cease and Desist Orders. Administrative fines ranging from P1,000-P50,000 per drug violation for the GMAP and MDRP have been imposed. Repeated violations of the GMAP and the MDRP can incur penalties of as much as P50,000-P5,000,000 with accompanying suspension or revocation of their Licenses to Operate, depending on the gravity and extent of the violation. (PIA-Bohol)
by anyajulia | Dec 27, 2008 | Headlines, National News
AT P280 against P600 per kilo, it is quite logical that people convert to R12, but with a devastating effect it gives to earth’s ozone layer, it is also understandable why the government is off to a phase-out of the cheaper refrigerant.
Come 2010, all those cars, refrigerators and air-conditioning units using the dreaded chlorofluorocarbons (R12 Freon) may be wasted, unless they are retrofitted with the environment friendly hydrofluorocarbons (HFC 134a).
CFC-12 or Freon, an ozone depleting substance, is widely used as cooling agent especially in car air-conditioning systems. However, a freon total phase-out following zero importation by year 2010 would force the refrigerant to be irrelevant in the Philippines, being among the signatories to the Montreal Protocol on the Protection on the Ozone Layer, sources said.
In short, what becomes vogue in 2010 are those that use non-CFC, because freon is the earth’s biggest ozone depleting substance.
How does a retrofit cost? Well, according to air-conditioning technicians, not much, except that units need to be using different capilla oil, one that has Society of Automotive Engineers 20 viscousity.
The Department of Transportation and Communication – Land Transportation Office (LTO) and Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) – Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is implementing a regulation under the DOTC-DENR Joint Administrative Order No. 3 series of 2006.
This would also impose upon car-owners the mandatory inspection of their car aircon systems as a prerequisite for renewal and registration.
This means all model 1999 vehicles to present should only have R-134a or non-CFC air-conditioning system to be registered.
It also means HFC-134a air-con system vehicles are banned from converting to freon as commo practice to skip the expensive hydrofluorocarbons and other blends.
Older models with Freon-using airconditioning system may be allowed to register until 2012, but they have to retrofit.
Notwithstanding its commercial and industrial value, CFCs pose serious environmental threats.
Studies undertaken by various scientists revealed that CFCs released into the atmosphere accumulate in the stratosphere, where they had deleterious effect on the ozone layer.
Stratospheric ozone shields the earth’s living organisms from harmful ultraviolet rays.
For the concern over ozone depletion, the ban against CFCs in aerosol-spray dispensers have now graduated into total ban for CFC. (rachiu/PIA)
by anyajulia | Oct 25, 2008 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
NO MATTER how noble the purpose is, government vehicles can not be used by government employees to take an ailing relative to the nearest hospital, even in emergency cases, rules out the government’s Task Force Red Plate.
The Tanodbayan, under Honorable Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez created the task force aimed at ensuring that government vehicles are used in accordance with existing laws.
The task force is the government’s implementing arm in checking abuse despite implemented austerity measures. They spread the dragnet, which widened recently to ensnare abusive employees using government vehicles despite express instructions to cut on fuel consumption in the midst of a fuel crisis.
According to the task force, in no case shall a government employee use a government vehicle to further his private ends, unless he has obtained a permission to do so from the proper authority.
The subject austerity measure also bans government vehicles from fetching children or relatives to and from school, even if it is only along the way to office.
The task force said it is a declared policy that government vehicles should be used solely for the furtherance of official business. The same holds true even in cases where the employee himself answers for the gas of the government vehicle.
In this light, a government vehicle, when not in use can not be brought home and have it put in the private garage, because by general rule, a government vehicle should be put in a garage provided by the agency of the government the vehicle is assigned.
But, by way of exceptions, a government vehicle may be brought home in cases where the agency does not have a garage or where it is more economical to bring home the vehicle, cites the task force on Sec. 361 of the General Auditing and Accounting Manual [e-4], GAAM and Commission on Audit circular 85-55.
Then, unless properly authorized, a government employee may bring a government vehicle to places like markets, restaurants, hotels, resorts, or similar places outside official route.
The driver however should present a mandatory Driver’s Trip Ticket duly accomplished before the vehicle can be used.
The absence of Driver’s Trip Ticket to authorize the use of a government vehicle outside official route, or outside office hours, or on a Sunday or legal holiday or by persons other that those authorized to use them raises prima facie evidence of its private use, the task force said in Section 361[d-1], GAAM; Sec. 2, EO 418. (rachiu/PIA)
