Drugstores oppose proposal to ditch seniors’ purchase booklet 

MANILA, Philippines — The senior citizens discount booklet is still necessary and useful to ensure compliance with prescribed medications and prevent abuses, the Drugstores Association of the Philippines said on Tuesday. 

ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo and Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo earlier called for the scrapping of the senior citizens’ purchase booklet requirement.

“When it comes to medicine po, this is our basis if a senior citizen or PWD is compliant with the medicine they purchased, because booklets go hand-in-hand with prescriptions.  So what is written in the prescription should also appear in the booklet,” Drugstores Association of the Philippines president Vicente Briones said during the House committee on ways and means hearing on Tuesday.

“Second, this is our basis of control if seniors need to return to their doctors because if we do not have this (booklet), the senior would continue to buy the medicine even if he or she does not need it […] it’s not that we won’t provide, because for generic medicines, we give discounts.  But for branded medicines, I said before that we cannot accommodate it,” he added.

According to Briones, pharmaceutical companies would not sell medicines to small and independent players at the same rate that big companies procure them.

“We cannot accommodate it because we don’t get big discounts like Mercury, big pharmaceutical companies would not allow us small companies to buy one box of medicines, to get the same discounts as Mercury which will buy a thousand boxes,” he explained.

When Quimbo asked Briones if cashiers actually check the booklets, the latter maintained that it is being checked and it actually serves as a guide.