AGHAM supports inventors

In my last column, I cited reasons why AGHAM Party List is needed in Congress. At the national convention of  AGHAM last week, officers headed by No. 1 nominee Dr. Emil Q. Javier emphasized the need to have scientists, inventors, researchers, teachers and extension agents represented in Congress.

I made a mistake about statistics from a Department of Science and Technology study in relation to the ratio of scientists to the Philippine population.

The correct figures are the following: For the year 1992, at the ratio of 152 scientists and engineers per one million of a 65 million population, the country only had 9,880 scientists and engineers. For the year 1996, with 156 scientists and engineers per one million in a population of 71 million, we only had 11,076 scientists and engineers, and for the year 2002, with the ratio of 85 scientists per one million population, we only had 6,800 scientists and engineers. Note that there was a large decrease in the number of scientists and engineers from 1996 to 2002.

The same DOST paper notes that there is "no other fundamental mover of economic development than science and technology. Centuries of technology breakthroughs are the roots of today’s abundance in the development world, and those with technological edge — the United States, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Eastern Europe — have the highest standard of living among all nations."

AGHAM takes on the DOST challenge to attain a "knowledge-based economy based directly on the production, distribution and use of knowledge and information as reflected by growing high-technology investments, high technology industries, demand for highly-skilled labor and associated productivity gains." Attaining this would require, among other things, a substantial and sustained investment in S&T (science and technology), the paper says.

The Philippines, like most developing countries, is "in a state of marginal and underdeveloped S&T," the paper says. This shortcoming is brought about by underinvestment in S&T, resulting in weak human resource capability and S&T infrastructure development and poor technology creation (for instance patents granted to residents, receipts of royalties and license fees).

Considering the limited budget of the government, public support to S&T gets a perennially dismal share of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. As per the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTDP), the 2002 expenditure on R&D (research and development) amounted to only P4.5 billion, which is only 0.11 percent of GDP, a level way below the United Nations’ prescribed 1 percent. This level of investment pales in comparison with our neighboring countries, especially Thailand with 1.4 percent; Malaysia with 1.06 percent, and Japan with 3.36 percent in the early 1990s.

Poor S&T investment has, in recent years, sharply diminished human resource development (HRD) programs, hindering an upgrade in the country’s manpower skills. The country in effect experiences a decrease in R&D Human Resources as it had 108 R&D personnel per million engaged in R&D.

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S&T, according to DOST, has long been among the least prioritized sectors in terms of budget allocation. For the past decade, budget allocation for the sector has in fact been on the down-trend. DOST’s annual budget in nominal terms declined from P2.857 billion in 1994 to P2.620 billion in 2003. In real terms, the decline was more dramatic with the 2004 budget being reduced to about half of 1994’s.

In the matter of supporting Filipino inventors, one of AGHAM’s legislative agenda priorities is supporting research and development programs for inventors. This is an area where the Philippine government has failed to support due to poor budgetary allocation. The result has been dismal. The Philippines lagged behind other ASEAN countries with less than 1 patent granted per million people. Japan and Korea ranked first in terms of patents granted to residents averaging about 900 patents per million people. This is followed by Singapore, Thailand, China and India.

The problem is not only supporting investors get patents. The more important problem is marketing these inventions. According to AGHAM’s president, Dr. Javier, we must provide incentives to domestic capitalists to back up our inventors.

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This is to call the attention of all regional, state, provincial and city prosecutors and their assistants to heed the Memorandum Order issued by Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez dated May 30, 2005, directing them to bring to the attention of the Secretary all cases filed against Mayor Virginia D. Animas, et. al , in false or fictitious addresses. The cases must be filed using the respondents’ true address, which is Poblacion, Sapang Dalaga, Misamis Occidental.

The MO was issued in light of non-bailable offenses such as large-scale illegal recruitment, murder, kidnapping, etc., having been indiscriminately filed by unscrupulous persons against the mayor and other persons, using false or fictitious addresses. The use of fictitious addresses was resorted to to mislead the prosecutors concerned in the service of the subpoena, as a result of which, the respondents failed to file their counter-affidavits. "This practice smacks of a denial of due process of law and demonstrates a mockery of our prosecutorial and judicial system," the MO says.

Other respondents erroneously charged were Vice-Mayor Anabelle Suminguit, former Mayor Manuel Animas, Clerk of Court Darryl Mon-tealto, Danilo Lusterio, former Municipal Secretary Alfonso D. Lonsod IV; Rene Apostol, former Vice Mayor Donjie Animas, former Mayor Joel Maniwan, Alfonso D’Lonsod III, and Josie Bayawa (NBP personnel).

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My e-mail: [email protected]