Day: 4 August, 2010

An Online Cure For Ignorance

Bernardo Arellano III Leave a comment

Information is necessary for all. It is the basic right for everyone to have. With regards to it, the previous topics that we’ve discussed, about the importance of advising the public about possible health hazards, especially those who live on the countryside, and the clarifying or giving more information on a drug that has a history of controversy, its time that we head on towards disseminating the information that would be relevant to the consumers. Medicine online campaigns through social media is one great idea!

Television and radio aren’t enough nowadays to fill in the gap in the humanity’s insatiable quest for more information. Today, the trend also goes online. The pharmaceutical companies have recognised the power of the online and digital world with more interaction between its consumers and the producers or advertisers themselves.

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The Fiasco at Baclaran: Commuter’s Misery with MMDA Dispatch

Bernardo Arellano III 3 Comments
Roxas Boulevard near Baclaran

PARANAQUE CITY, PHILIPPINES — Today is Baclaran Day, or the day when the devotees of Our Lady of Perpetual Help converge at Baclaran Church in Parañaque City, one of Metro Manila’s busiest and most congested districts. As expected, early morning will be the start of the traffic jam that normally occurs every Wednesdays. But this Wednesday, August 4, was no longer ordinary for me. MMDA failed big time! It failed the commuters way big time!

At around 6:10 AM, our bus from Cavite, bound for EDSA, entered Baclaran’s bus stop for the usual dispatch. They have a new chairman, a former mayor of Tagaytay City. So like always whenever there’s a new king to lead his men, they implement the traffic rules strictly. So those who disobeyed are instantly reprimanded or apprehended. Just to play it safe, the driver of the bus entered the dispatch bus stop area at Baclaran, rather than risking to pay P1,000 fine…from that time on…it was ‘haynakupo!’ for most of the passengers. It’s Baclaran Day, obviously you’re entering the eye of the storm! (more…)

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So Good, So Fast-So Is the Information?

Bernardo Arellano III 1 Comment

Having discussed about the situation of No Approved Therapeutic Claims in the provinces, especially when it comes to the rural folks, I would like to turn into something that I am somehow familiar with. Janette Toral mentioned in her blog about a particular pain killer drug brand called Saridon, which is popular in Visayas and Mindanao areas. I’m familiar with it, due to the fact that it is being advertised in Iloilo and Cebu, my two base camps in the Visayan region. I can still remember a commercial of it not so long ago. “So good, so fast!”—that was the slogan of the said medicine. The TV advertisement was frequently played in both Iloilo and Cebu. However, it is indeed “so fast” because it only lasts, I guess 15-seconds. It describes it as a very fast pain reliever for different sorts of people, from firefighters to teachers and others. However, one thing I noticed though, the broadcast seems to be localized, that when I came to Metro Manila and even the neighboring Tagalog provinces, the drug seems to hit most of its 18 million inhabitants!

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