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MANILA - A pharmaceutical company offered to provide 5 million discount cards to the government to impede the enforcement of the Cheaper Medicines Law, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said Monday.

"To offer 5 million cards to the highest leader of the land at a time when we are discussing the enforcement of this law and the implementing rules and regulations is a very delicate matter," Enrile said at the Senate committee hearing on the Cheaper Medicines Act.

Drug manufacturer Pfizer Philippines reportedly offered 5 million "sulit cards" to the government to "provide cheaper medicines to the public," which Enrile said could be valued at P100 million or more, depending on the usage done by its recipients.

The offer, which was purportedly rejected by the government, was made as President Arroyo was set to issue a maximum retail price (MRP) for 22 most prescribed drugs in the country as a provision of the Cheaper Medicines Law (Republic Act 9502), which was passed in 2008.

Reiner Gloor, executive director of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP), however, made it clear that the offer was made to the Department of Health, and not to President Arroyo.

He denied it was a bribe offer, saying it was made even before the government was finalizing the guidelines for the MRP.

Still, Enrile said the offer is a bribe, regardless of who it is offered to.

"Even if it was offered to the Secretary of Health, it's the same thing. Even if it was offered to Sen. Roxas, still, it's the same carabao. [It was made] to prevent the enforcement of the cheap medicines law. That's the way it impresses me as a lawyer," he said.

Instead of offering discount cards to a selected number of people, Enrile said Pfizer could have just offered to lower their prices as a function of competition. This, he said, would cast less doubt on their intentions to stall the Cheaper Medicines Law.

"If they could afford to lose the value of that discount (around P100 million), how come it could not afford to lower the price of its medicinal products that are marketed in this society?" he said.

"Why only select 5 million people in this country, why not let the whole mass of 90 million Filipinos enjoy, not the benefits of charity but the benefit of market forces in this country?" Enrile added.

'Secret' meeting

Sen. Manuel Roxas II previously accused the government of setting a "secret meeting" with Pfizer and other drug companies early this month to postpone the enforcement of the standard MRP for 22 essential medicines.

A representative of Pfizer, however, has made it clear that it requested the meeting to express concerns about the implementation of the Cheaper Medicines Law, saying that a direct notice should have been given to pharmaceutical companies regarding the matter.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has already admitted that President Arroyo did meet with the said pharmeceutical companies, but denied that it was intended to stall the implementation of the MRP for selected drugs.