MANILA, Philippines -- Speaker Prospero Nograles has given the House of Representatives contingent to the bicameral conference committee the go signal to approve the proposed cheaper medicines bill.

Nograles said he would no longer get in the way of the bill’s enactment into law before Labor Day on May 1 after receiving assurances the measure would really lower the cost of medicines in the country despite the deletion of the so-called “generics only” provision.

The provision requires doctors to prescribe only the generic names of drugs instead of the brand name of medicines.

Earlier, Iloilo Representative Fejenel Biron, a member of the House panel, said the provision on the price regulation mechanism that was deleted last week from the proposed cheaper medicines bill was restored at the bicameral conference committee.

However, the generics only provision was not.

“I was told that conditions have been set in place upon the insistence of the House contingent so the strength of the law is intact as far as the issue on the removal of the regulatory board is concerned. I think that’s good enough to facilitate its ratification,” Nograles said in a statement on Monday.

Biron and other members of the House contingent agreed to sign the final report of the proposed legislation only if the provision on price regulation was restored.

The Iloilo solon said the final report being routed for signature this Monday to members of the bicameral conference committee now contains the provision requiring the health secretary to set the maximum retail prices of essential medicines.

Biron protested last week a draft committee report that deleted the creation of a price regulatory board and replaced this with a provision giving the President the power to regulate the cost of medicines on the recommendation of the health secretary.

In the final committee report, Biron said the power to regulate remained with the President but the prices of medicines will be determined immediately after the approval of the measure.

“There is no prior determination by the President. After the enactment of the bill, the Secretary of Health will be given 120 days to set the maximum prices of essential medicines with the final approval of the President,” he said over the phone.

“Halimbawa, yung presyo ng amoxicillin, sasabihin ng government ang presyo nito should not exceed P7, so yun ang magiging presyo ng gamot sa lahat ng tindahan. At pati yung display ng presyo ng gamot, dapat dun mismo sa pakete [For example, if the government says the price of amoxicillin should not exceed P7, then that is the price of the medicine in all stores. And the price of the medicine should be displayed on the packet],” he explained.

With the price regulation mechanism, arbitrary pricing and hoarding of medicines will be avoided, the lawmaker added.

Aside from Biron, three other congressmen -- Representatives Antonio Alvarez of Palawan, Junie Cua of Quirino and Teodoro “Teddyboy” Locsin Jr. of Makati -- also signed the report.

Biron said a simple majority of the bicameral conference committee, composed of 10 members of the House panel and three from the Senate, is needed to approve the measure.

After the proposed legislation is approved at the bicameral level, it will be sent back to the House and Senate for ratification and then transmitted to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for singing into law.

Nograles said he is giving the House contingent full autonomy to deal with the Senate and will support the panel’s decision on whether or not to ratify the measure.