ACANCE, Kathryn Bianca S.

BSAc 4

September 2, 2014
TThS 9:30-10:30

Is it because other countries are so rich that they can afford to invest in scientific and
technological researches or is it because of their investment in such that they became wealthy?
"Didnt you think it would be better to buy hospital beds than use the money for stem cell
research?" This is the question of Sen. Nancy Binay during a DAP hearing that rattled the minds
of Filipinos, particularly, doctors and the Department of Health secretary, himself. Seventy
million pesos of the intriguing Disbursement Acceleration Program Fund have been allocated to
the Bio Regenerative Technology Program that aims to harness stem cell research and
technology to reconstruct new health cells and replace cancer and dead cells.
While Department of Health Secretary Ona already defended their stand that such
research is beneficial by sharing the technology used in the program with other departments too,
Sen. Nancy Binay still believes that DAP fund have been placed in an unnecessary thing. She
thinks that it could have been used in an urgent matter particularly, on the additional hospital
beds since there is a shortage of such in most of the hospitals in the country.
Is it really beneficial for us to have the stem cell research or it could help us more if it is
instead allocated for additional hospital beds?
In my own opinion, the long term investments, especially scientific and technological
ones, should be prioritized because it could help our economy to prosper in the long run. It will
have a greater return on the nations economy. This is why I think that the allocation on stem cell
research is necessary and advantageous. Scientific researches could help our countrys economy
to thrive. The positive externalities brought by these studies could greatly benefit our countrys
economical status compared to the externalities brought by short term projects like the increase
in number of hospital beds, though, the problems with hospital beds should still be addressed.
The potential income that these researches could bring our country could be easily used to fund
these short term projects in the near future.
Scientific advances and technological change are important drivers of recent economic
performance. The ability to create, distribute and exploit knowledge has become a major source
of competitive advantage, wealth creation and improvements in the quality of life. Some of the
main features of this transformation are the growing impact of information and communications
technologies (ICT) on the economy and on society; the rapid application of recent scientific
advances in new products and processes; a high rate of innovation across countries; a shift to
more knowledge-intensive industries and services; and rising skill requirements (OECD,2000).
Probing secrets of nature through scientific researches is investing in the Philippine
leadership in science and technology. Scientific leadership and prestige is a positive externality
brought about by such studies. In addition, the intellectual property created by publicly funded
research leads to the creation of innumerable small companies and, ultimately, many large
companies in biotechnology, energy, computer technology and other scientific and engineering
fields (Gross et. Al., 2009). A recent analysis of US patent citations found that more than 70% of

biotechnology citations were to papers originating solely at public science institutions. If a nation
has this scientific leadership, they could harness and develop products from these researches. If
our country is the only one who has this sort of information, then other countries needing such
would pay even a bigger amount just to get a share of the research results.
Scientific researches and breakthroughs from such could give the economy an immediate
stimulus. They could create good jobs across the economy; there is large pent-up need so that
money can be spent immediately, and it represents an investment in the infrastructures of
research and higher education that are vital to the future (Gross et. Al., 2009). Scientific funding
creates good jobs. Ews.Based in an article in nydailynews.com, Families USA has estimated that
each $1 billion of National Institute of Health research grant funding creates more than 15,000
jobs with an average wage of $52,000 a year and generates $2.21 billion of new business
activity. Another example is the federally-funded human genome project that is credited with
creating 310,000 jobs, generating nearly $1 trillion in economic output, and leading to an evergrowing list of medical treatments, along with potential for expanded agricultural output and
other benefits. It did not only increase the job rates, it also increased tax revenues that made
budget surpluses possible.
Based on the Science and Technology as Agents of Economic
Growth - Canadian Science Policy Conference, posted in www.ic.gc.ca,
Canadian government has made significant new investments in science and
research in the last federal budgets. Year two of Canada's Economic Action
Plan invests close to $1.4 billion in initiatives to promote science, technology
and innovation. This builds on an unprecedented federal investment of
nearly $5 billion in year one of the Plan. Through this kind of continued
commitment, dedication and financial backing, Canada will remain at the
forefront of global science research. Canadas GDP has been growing faster
than business expenditures in R&D. Canadian business has not reinvested
the gains from economic growth back into the technologies that will help to
accelerate and sustain growth into the future.
According to oecd.org, Extracting sufficient benefits from public investment in science
and R&D is a core task for governments. Science is of increasing importance if countries want to
benefit from the global stock of knowledge. Basic scientific research is the source of many
technologies that are transforming society, such as the Internet and the laser, while life sciences
are contributing to advances in health care and biotechnology on a pace more rapid than ever
before. A large number of these scientific discoveries and inventions occur by chance, sometimes
as the by-product of more focused research efforts, but often as the result of scientific curiosity.
So to answer Binays question on whether a stem cell research is a very good use of
money even though our country has a lot of problems these days, yes, funding scientific research
and development could bring out greater returns in the economy. Long term value creation
should always be put into mind to be better than having short term benefits. Such research could
bring us greater long term effects. Moreover, the sustained growth of any economy, and its
ability to provide for its people, is based on a strong base of science and technological research.

Therefore, as what Filipino scientist Michael Purugganan have said, to turn our back on science
and technology will inevitably condemn our country to perpetual economic backwardness