Follow-up to Luneta: September on EDSA?

FOLLOW-UP: Postscript asked last time “After Luneta, what?” because we are notorious for our short span of attention and our propensity to wait for others to make the next move on public issues.

While the Luneta rally last Monday delivered the core anti-pork barrel message, that picnic at the park was much too kind. It lacked unified direction and did not have the focused targeting needed for maximum impact.

We need an escalated follow-up rally before the message trails off. We have to hit “while the iron is hot.”

This time why not on September 11 on EDSA itself, right in the birth place of the original People Power of 1986 that toppled an oppressive regime? EDSA has been disfigured almost beyond recognition, but patriotic Filipinos can find it again.

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SOLONS LYING LOW: A number of senators, including some first-timers who have not tasted a sliver of it, have expressed willingness to give up their pork ration. Good gesture, but not enough.

On the other side of town, however, most congressmen are still holding their breath, waiting for their colleagues in the crocodile farm for hints of what the swarm should do for their common survival.

Without the barrel rolling out, how can salivating lawmakers recoup campaign expenses and then make those multi-million profits? Giving up pork is a survival question for most members of the Congress whose cost of maintenance is one of this country’s top secrets.

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TOP PORKER: And lolling by the Pasig is the biggest of them all with at least P350 billion in discretionary “Special Purpose Funds.”

But President Noynoy Aquino has served notice that nobody — certainly not a motley crowd of holiday picnickers — is going to take away a slice of his pork.

His apologists keep assuring the public that it need not worry about misuse of Palace pork since the President daw is a prudent person who will not waste or misspend money under his care.

Granted, but supposed the next presidents are not as saintly as Noynoy Aquino? Budgetary reform must not be personalized, but institutionalized and built into the system.

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EDSA NEXT TIME: Presidential spokesmen pointed out that his P10-billion social fund is not “public funds” since it comes from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and not from customs or internal revenue collections.

They gloss over the fact that even if not tax money, his discretionary social fund comes from government-controlled corporations and is therefore imbued with public interest. And how come it is being audited by the Commission on Audit?

Since President Aquino and his allies in the Congress are pretending not to hear the clear message to scrap the pork barrel, a bigger — and more raucous — follow-up protest rally on EDSA may be in order.

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P125-M WASTE: On the massive misuse of public funds, lawyer Romulo Macalintal said one area of savings could be the deactivation of the Senate Electoral Tribunal for the simple reason that the SET has no election protest to decide.

Since 2012 after the protest of Sen. Koko Pimentel was resolved in August 2011, no election case has been adjudicated by the SET. In the last May 13 senatorial elections, no election protest by any losing senatorial candidate was filed.

Macalintal asked how the P125-million budget each for 2012 and 2013 was (mis)used. He added: “Why is there a need to appropriate another P125 million for SET in 2014 when it is as clear as the sunlight that there is no election protest for its adjudication?”

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ORTHO CENTER: As the pork barrel storm rages, the Department of Health quietly keeps working on the modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center through Public-Private Partnership.

One effect of putting up this 700-bed facility offering international quality orthopedic and trauma care is the bringing in of substantial foreign exchange from foreigners flocking to the “leading tertiary care center for bone and joint diseases, trauma and rehabilitation medicine.”

Health Secretary Enrique Ona said the hospital would deliver specialty orthopedic care, related to joint replacement, degenerative disorders, orthopedics oncology, orthopedic trauma care, pediatric orthopedics, spine care arthroscopy and sports medicine and rehabilitation.

The center will also have teaching and training facilities for advanced clinical care and management for specialized and sub-specialized treatments and surgical procedures.

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UNI-HEALTH CARE: Under the universal health care program of the department, no one will be denied health services on account of his being poor.

The program includes cancer and heart by-pass procedures under PhilHealth, an attached agency of the department. PhilHealth president Alex Padilla said that 79.13 million of the population had been enrolled with Philhealth as of last April.

Ona said that PhilHealth has paid more than 4.8 million claims last year amounting to P47.2 billion, or an average of P9,400 per claim.

This year, an average of P1.5 billion a week is paid out, after the DoH and PhilHealth included in the insurance coverage so-called catastrophic diseases such as cancer and heart problems.

In the first semester, there were 164 availments under the expanded coverage called the “Z” package. Of this number, 88 were breast cancer patients and 33 had kidney transplants.

Part of Ona’s program is the modernization of regional hospitals. Example is the Davao Regional Hospital which was provided with a Linear Acceleration machine.

Davao’s hospital is the first government cancer center outside Manila offering complete chemotherapy and more advanced radiation therapy. Since its inauguration on Jan. 8, 2012, the facility has treated 259 cancer patients.

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