Turn that loathsome pork into dialysis machines

either of these two things: a foreign debt condonation or better repayment terms through rock-bottom interest payments.

From the money saved, so many public hospitals and barrio health centers would be built. So many public classrooms would be constructed. So much money could be diverted into the education and health systems of the country, said the good senator. Of course that was the Congress that always talked of really lifting the “human capital.” That was the Congress that passed the Free High School Act, the PhilHealth Law and the Senior Citizens Act, the trifecta that represented the State’s social contract with the governed.

The influence of the foreign creditors was dominating then and even the cousins of Senator Romulo scoffed at the idea. The false idea of “good behavior” from borrowers, never mind that much of the borrowed money lined the pockets of the Marcoses and their cronies, was too deeply entrenched. The orthodoxy on debt policy still carried the day. Nothing was done.

Yet, that episode planted the seminal seed of the national discussion on the need to make the most out of every peso in the national expenditure program. Because, as Romulo argued, every peso in the national budget spent for the public good was a peso well spent.

So, on the recent proposal for a presidential veto on every identi-

national budget for 2019, here is another possibility. Why not realign the pork items into better use? The pork can’t remain in the official budget because that is both unconstitutional and immoral. Why not re-purpose that pork into noble and practical expenditure items?

Were the P75 billion reportedly inserted into the P3.7 trillion national budget by “Insertion Czar” aka Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, realigned into funding for dialysis machines (and the initial liquid mix needed for the cleansing process called dialyzate), what would be the immediate impact? Here is a partial list:

— Tens of thousands of lives saved — Tens of thousands of families saved from economic collapse due to the high cost — and the frequency — of the dialysis procedure

— An improved national health care system

I am, of course, understating the impact of having an overwhelming presence of dialysis machines, particularly in poor and low-income rural and urban areas. Plus, the

According to data, one of our countrymen develops chronic renal failure every hour. About 120 of 1 million Filipinos need a twice-a-week or a thrice-a-week dialysis procedure to rid the blood of waste, salt and sugar. Kidney

the costs and second, for the lack of experts in the area. Dialyzing is the way to go. I have seen too many next of kin die due to kidney failure and the cost, the whole process, is heart-breaking.

Also factor this in: the armies of diabetics about to enter that scary territory of kidney failure.

The data alone makes a very compelling case, for one thing. Instead of a presidential veto on the pork-related items, why not take the option of realigning the billions of pesos in pork-related items into expenditure for public good, with dialysis machines as a priority.

The formulation is simple enough — turn pork in the national budget into dialysis machines. And that would deliver a national relief so overwhelming.

It is easy to see the point of just realigning the pork items into expenditures for the public good under an environment of extreme transparency.

The P3.7 trillion-plus proposed budget for the year came up after a solid revenue projection. Most of that will come from taxes, backed up by borrowed money, sourced in moderation, and repayment of which will be manageable.

All national budgets are framed with strains and exigencies and emergencies factored in. Fiscal stability was and is the end-all and beall. Nothing to fear if the pork items are used for more important and priority items, such as dialysis machines for every barrio, if possible.

After the dialysis machines, what? This is the easy part.

Our public research universities are starved of funds. The reality is this: our public research universities do not really lack the academic stars and researchers to shine in the Asian tertiary education and research firmament. I personally know of some kids with doctorates from elite universities in the United States and with offers to teach there. But they have turned down the offers to teach at the elite US schools so that they could teach at our University of the Philippines and the other local public research universities, even at starvation pay.

What our public research universities lack is money for serious research and development work, money for the labs and money to fund the long and tedious research work. Rigor does not come cheap,

Then we build technology hubs to supplant the grassy knolls that pass off as technology hubs. But that is one topic that should be discussed deeply. We will go into that in future columns.