Former Department of Health (DOH) secretary and Iloilo 1st District Rep. Janette Loreto-Garin asked Tuesday (Nov. 24) the Duterte government to come up with a “just” price cap for COVID-19 testing.

She made the call, a day after Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez announced that the government will issue e price cap on COVID-19 testing this week.

"Sa paglalagay ng price cap, sana maging mabusisi ang mga magdedesisyon ukol dito. Maging makatarungan sana ang price cap na itatalaga para sa mga kababayan natin, pati na rin sa mga ospital o health facilities na kailangan din naman ng kahit maliit na tubo,” she said in a statement.

(In determining the price cap, I hope those who will decide on this will conduct thorough scrutiny. The price cap that will be set should be just for our people and for the hospitals and health facilities that also need to gain a little profit.)

Just like her colleagues, she also cited the need for the government to put to halt the predatory practices of some abusive organizations or facilities that are making huge profit from the COVID-19 testing “at the expense of our people.”

"In a pandemic such as this, public health should take precedence over profit-making agenda,” Garin said.

She observes that the imposition of a price cap for COVID-19 testing is "long overdue."

 "We have established that no one is safe from COVID-19. Many carriers are asymptomatic. Thus we need to test more people. And in order for us to test more people, we need to curb the pricing and set a ceiling so our people are protected from opportunistic institutions, hospitals and laboratories,” Garin said.