Press Release
November 5, 2007

Transcript of ambush interviews
with Senator Mar Roxas (excerpts)

On being eyed by former president Joseph Estrada as a 2010 opposition presidential candidate/3rd reading passage of the Quality Affordable Medicines bill:

MAR: Nagpapasalamat tayo kay pangulong Erap na nabanggit niya tayo. Tayo naman ngayon, ang ating concentration ay nasa trabaho. Sa aking palagay, 2010 will not be so much Gloria versus Erap, will not be so much admin versus opposition, but I think 2010 will be, who has a plan and who can implement that plan to move our country forward, to create jobs and incomes and livelihood for our people.

Salamat sa pagsama sa atin na tinuturing presidentiable, pero ang 2010, napakalayo pa po niyan, at napakaraming problema na hinaharap ng ating bansa, lalung-lalo na sa sobrang mahal na presyo ng gamot. Ito, hot off the Senate floor, kakatapos lang ng ating botohan, at napasa na on third reading itong Quality Affordable Medicines bill, at ito yung pinaglalaban natin, sinusulong natin ito magmula noong DTI pa tayo hanggang sa ngayon, at pasado na sa Senado. Inaasahan na lang ang mabilis na aksyon ng House of Representatives, at sa ganoong paraan, ay maging batas na ito.

On JPEPA:

MAR: Sa ngayon, ang JPEPA ay malabo pa. Hindi pa napresenta ng gobyerno ng malinaw ang mga positives nito para sa atin, at inaasahan natin sa darating na mga hearing na lalo nilang titibayin ang kanilang mga presentations.

They submitted all the memoranda on the 23rd. Myself and the staff are in fact all going through it now, so that we can dissect the contents of this. We can not take a look at it in isolation. As you know, a negotiation is always looked upon holistically, where when you lose in one area, you gain in another area. So you can not just take one aspect and make a determination. You have to take a look at the totality of what we got versus what we had to give up.

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