Phl inventors in spotlight next week

MANILA, Philippines - The country continues to produce young, innovative Filipino inventors and they will be given the spotlight when the Filipino Inventors Society Producers Cooperative (FISPC) celebrates the National Inventors Week (NIW) this Nov. 13 to 16.

Francisco Pagayon, FISPC chairman, said that this year’s NIW will be the first time that celebrations will be spearheaded by inventors and innovators themselves, unlike in previous years when these were organized by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) as part of their National Science and Technology Week (NSTW).

“We want the NIW to be all about Filipino inventors and innovators, and their products. We don’t want inventors and innovators to be mere sideshows,” Pagayon told The STAR.

The FISPC-spearheaded NIW 2014 will be celebrated in two venues: at the Fisher Mall along Quezon Avenue corner Roosevelt Avenue in Quezon City and the FISPC business center and showroom at the Delta building along Quezon Avenue corner West Avenue, also in Quezon City.

Pagayon said that to be given center stage in the NIW are the FISPC’s “young turks” – young and even not so young inventors who have come up with creative and innovative products that address modern needs of Filipinos and foreigners alike.

Among the FISPC’s young turks are 36-year-old Lito de Leon Jr., with his portable Ambulatory Rapid Deployment Rescue Command Center; and 42-year-old electronics and communications engineer Francis F. Garcia, 42, and his solar power electric appliance packages.

Also to be featured in the NIW is Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Superintendent Percival Barba, 55, and his solar-powered road marker “Barba-Lite” – designed to make the country’s highways and major thoroughfares safer to navigate for motorists at night, in an environment-friendly and cost-efficient way.

Pagayon said that the country’s inventors and innovators continue to be ignored even by the DOST, while praised and recognized abroad.

He cited the case of Barba, currently deputy director of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao, whose Barba-Lite won a gold medal in the prestigious British Invention Show in London in October 2013.

“A lot more has to be done to help our inventors and innovators develop their products and then market them. Sadly, the DOST is doing a poor job in nurturing our inventors because they tend to be the ones who question and doubt our inventors’ capabilities. It is very frustrating, really,” Pagayon said.