I had to pause and reflect upon humility yesterday. By chance, yesterday's Gospel was found in Matthew 5,13-16.

"You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father."

We are all called to evangelize. We are all responsible to make the world a better place. Each of us must find the best way we can give back. There wasn't any boasting intended when I wrote about the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. I felt my pride in the institution was justified and I wrote it in my blog. I also called myself a prototype of things to come. Am I not allowed to sing paeans to myself in my house? If you can even call them paeans? But it was ungracious of me to flash a sliver of arrogance towards a guest even if I felt it was deserved and so my humble apologies (no sarcasm intended with the pun) to jdtl, md.

But humility? Come on, would any of you even consider descending into a political maelstrom with no reasonable chance of electoral success? When I referred to the campaign as a "humbling experience", I had in mind a picture of myself, a successful physician based in the US talking to market vendors in Davao, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro introducing myself and try hard to reach out to those I felt needed the most help. I did encounter a numbing dose of cynicism, incredulity, despair, resignation, skepticism amid the poverty and the unwholesome living conditions but what made the experience humbling and ultimately worthwhile was the hope most people continued to harbor that life would be better for their children no matter how unfavorable the odds.

My commitment to help improve the situation in whatever way I can has grown stronger. I am impatient and I think these are desperate times. I sincerely want our leaders to succeed and our country to rise but as the election of Sonny Trillanes demonstrates, regardless of the rosy economic numbers and hopeful forecasts, very few are buying.

As expected, Congress failed to pass a bill that would make medications less expensive. Apparently we are second only to Japan in having the costliest drugs in Asia. Our drug prices are higher by 40 to 70 percent compared to other countries in the region. The public was fooled into thinking that meaningful reform regarding the ridiculous drug costs was underway and a few members of Congress made a big, loud spectacle of throwing out some members of pharmaceutical companies from the session hall to demonstrate their independence, even if most of them knew the bill was so poorly crafted and loaded with defects.

Throughout the 90 day campaign period, I was given 3 minutes and thirty seconds of free national television exposure when I participated in a program that asked each candidate 3 questions. One of the three questions pertained to my stand regarding parallel importation of medications considering that my “sister was a lawyer for a multinational pharmaceutical company”. I was flabbergasted by the question because it suggested that I went home and left my medical practice to shill for a pharmaceutical company in the Philippines!

Now all this debate and talk about drugs being expensive involves a lot of idiocy. Cited all the time as an example is Norvasc, a medicine for hypertension, priced at P41.41 per tablet, instead of a possible cost of only P5.77 per 5-mg tablet if imported from India. Hypertension is the fifth leading cause of death in the Philippines killing over 300,000 people in 2004. I don’t understand why our government does not take the initiative to manufacture less expensive and almost equally effective alternative drugs like diuretics which cost something like P0.10 to manufacture? In the US, diuretics belong to the so called first line of anti-hypertensive medications. Why do we insist on Cheetos when we can settle on Chiz Curls? Another favorite drug here is Plendil which costs P21.82 a tablet instead of P2.69 if imported from India. I remember back in 1990 while working for the US Veterans Administration we were instructed to stop prescribing Plendil altogether and switch to generic nifedipine, a related calcium-channel blocker that was way less expensive. A popular drug for pain and inflammation is Ponstan which retails for P25 per tablet. If imported from India, the price plummets to P3.22. I don’t recall a single episode in 17 years in the US of ever prescribing Ponstan (mefenamic acid) because we always started with acetaminophen or Tylenol and made our way up to ibuprofen, naproxen. Much cheaper and very easy to produce. Importation is not the answer.

The government through the Department of Health must educate the public about the rational use of medications. We must not expect for-profit pharmaceutical companies to stop hosting educational symposia, or make donations to libraries or send physicians abroad to attend educational activities because these invariably influence prescribing patterns. We must begin becoming self-sufficient on anti-hypertensives, anti-tuberculosis medications, anti-infectives, anti-inflammatory drugs. We can’t expect drug companies to invest on a drug that will sell for P0.10 apiece. There is no profit here, this is why we have a government. We’ve done it in the past. Ilosone (erythromycin) was isolated from soil samples obtained in Iloilo (hence the appellation) submitted by Dr. Abelardo Aguilar in 1949. It remains the antibiotic drug of choice for penicillin-allergic patients.

Our Senate and House of Representatives do not have the wherewithal to shake the system. They have behaved like noisy purveyors of false hope. All I need to ask is “look where we are today?” If I become President, I will make an inventory of priority diseases that we can realistically control (hypertension being one of them) and direct the Secretary of Health to buy a laboratory that will be dedicated to manufacturing generic alternatives. Even if the savings from renegotiating our interest payments are not yet available, I will realign funding from many existing programs that are not performing effectively and believe me, there are many harebrained programs. Through a Barangay distribution system, we will offer the generic medications at cost to all hypertensive patients and offer free blood pressure readings as well (this is very easy with all the inexpensive automatic manometers around). Point is, this problem requires Executive fiat. Let's stop all this posturing and get to work.

Rev. Peter J. Gomes is a Professor at Harvard University. Below are excerpts from his commencement address at Augustana College:

Around this time of year I have an annoying habit of asking people, like you seniors, “Do you have a job?” You resist answering that question, but I repeat it, “Your mother and I want to know, do you have a job?” By job we don’t mean simply something that gives you a salary; I think we really mean: “Do you have a purpose? Do you have a calling? Do you have a vocation?”

I want to suggest to you that whether or not you have a job, everyone has a vocation, and that vocation is to live a life that is worth living. The best advice I can give is that which St. Paul gives us in Romans 12, where he says to the likes of you, who all look alike from here, “Be not conformed to this world.” Do not join the throng. Don’t get lost in the crowd. Don’t be a part of the cookie-manufactured college generation, but stake out for yourselves some extraordinary, maybe even eccentric, piece and place of the world, and make it your own

Crispin Beltran is the 74 year old Anakpawis party-list representative who has been detained since February 2006. He is a lifelong activist who has committed his life to fighting for the rights of the poor. A few days ago, even the Supreme Court chided the government for continuing to harass Beltran by imprisoning him in a hospital over the flimsiest of charges. Beltran needs to be released immediately.

It is not hard to see why communism continues to flourish in our country even when the original Marxists and Maoists in China and the USSR are rapidly becoming extinct. Communism is a flawed economic model. It will definitely not work in our country. But just as we don't imprison our leaders for continuing to implement failed economic policies, we should also leave Beltran and his group alone as long as they pursue their goals with active nonviolence.

I submit that it is even more of a crime if we do not do anything at this time. If we pretend that we are on our merry way to achieving first world status in 20 years, if we continue to hope that our leaders will experience mass conversion and discard their corrupt and inept ways. Beltran rose from the ranks as a labor leader over more than 50 years. He has tirelessly fought for human rights, higher wages, trade disparities, disastrous debt policies.

Any rational person will understand why some groups resort to violence because it is a form of violence to allow and perpetuate a majority of our people to live under horrible and hopeless conditions. To many of us, we have run out of options. Nothing in what we see today is going to make life more bearable tomorrow. We cannot see the light.

But it would be a terrible mistake to go down the path of violence. I think even the most hard-core revolutionaries understand this. The rich will only get richer and the poor, poorer. We need to remain militant, progressive, demanding, educated, firm and nonviolent.

Release Crispin Beltran now.

I have always been proud of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. When I entered the College in 1984 it was the only state medical school in a nation of 70 million. Competition to get into the school was terrific and acquiring stratospheric grades throughout the 4-year pre-med course fulfilled the fantasy of many obsessive-compulsive students. What made the school great was the quality of the students. The cream of the combined national genetic pool. The competition to remain in the school was even more intense. All in all an absolutely gratifying intellectual experience that lasted 5 years.

This year, 1000 applicants competed for 140 slots. In contrast, 15,000 applications were received for the 70 spots at the neighboring University of the Philippines College of Nursing. This certainly does not bode well as it demonstrates the vast transformation in priorities that occurred over the last 20 years. The brightest minds are seeking pathways to get out of the country ASAP. Intellectual development can be postponed for some other time and preferably in some other place but the main consideration is a quick exit. How can anyone blame all these hopeless youth? Much more how can anyone blame their hopeless parents who only want better opportunities for their children?

Recently, I listened to a member of the Nursing Board address a graduating class of 300 nurses. He began by detailing how noble the nursing profession was and proceeded to castigate the innumerable majority of their predecessors who had left the country. He then appealed to the young men and women to stay in the Philippines and help out in the medical crisis that was getting worse. I found his style most ineffective. When I was at that stage in my life all I could think about was how soon I could begin my life adventure. There was no speech that a stuffy official could deliver that was going to get at my conscience and prevail upon me to delay my plans.

The question is not whether our students should seek more training in other countries, it is how we can make them return and give back so much more than if they stayed behind.

And this is one reason why I have entered the dirty world of politics because most of our problems require political solutions. Our country is in terrible need of citizens who are not beholden to special interests and political blocs, who possess superior intelligence, who have had the opportunity to view the situation from a wholly different perspective, who have clear goals and plans for the future. There are thousands of such Filipinos all over the world. I am a prototype.