By Stephanie Tumampos & Lyn Resurreccion
THE Department of Science and Technology (DOST) will be holding its 2016 National Science and Technology Week (NSTW), with the theme “Juan Science, One Nation,” starting on July 25.
This will be the first NSTW to be held under the less-than-a-month-old Duterte administration. And this time, it will be led by Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña, who has previously served at the DOST as undersecretary for 13 years, from 2001 to 2014.
Below are excerpts of the BusinessMirror’s interview with de la Peña and some of his insights on the prospects of the government’s S&T program under his helm at the recent news conference with science reporters.
Reaction to President Duterte appointing him as science secretary:
It was mixed. I had a lot of anxiety, but, at the same time, I was telling myself this must be some kind of a plan from above. If you are called to serve, you should serve.
S&T on the Duterte administration’s 10-point agenda:
There has been no specific pronouncement yet on how or what the President would like to see in S&T, except that he did include it on his 10-point agenda: Promote science, technology and the creative arts to enhance innovation and creative capacity.
It is an important announcement to me that it has been included on the 10-point agenda of the present leadership. If I listen to the President’s pronouncements, I often hear his emphasis to sectors like agriculture, education and, of course, industry. More important, we should listen to his pronouncements that he wants every department to see and to look at how it can serve the ordinary citizens.
I see this as a challenge to the S&T community, to find out how we can deliver science to ordinary citizens and to provide good services to them.
At the same time, we were given information that we will have to prepare our inputs to the new Philippine Development Plan, which will be covering the years 2017 to 2022. I am hoping and praying hard, and will work hard, that we will have a chapter on S&T.
President Duterte also wants the regions to develop faster. That challenges us to look into ways by which our [DOST offices] in the regions will be enhanced, expanded and be more relevant. This is where we are focusing our attention. I have met with all the regional directors of the DOST and, happily, there has been many programs that have been started or accumulated over the past administrations.
Prospects under his leadership at the DOST:
I think a lot of achievements, breakthroughs can be achieved through synergy. In other words, we don’t have to work as, what the private business sector says, agencies should not work like separate silos. The whole government approach should really be practiced. I would really subscribe to that, and I know that there will be a lot of, shall we say, increase in benefit-to-cost if there will be collaboration among the agencies, not only with other government agencies, but with the industry-academe linkage. Collaboration is very important.
Budget requirements:
We requested for P23 billion, in addition to P16-billion regular budget [for 2017]. What we got was only P14 billion from the regular [budget], because the Department of Information and Communications Technology was already created, so the budget for ICT [information and communications technology] was removed from the DOST. For the additional P23 billion, so far half-a-billion pesos is okay. We are not losing hope. We are getting additional amounts, depending on discussions with the agencies.
Manpower needs:
On manpower, every time we ask for additional support on this aspect, it will depend on the decision of the national leadership for the budget allocation. We hope the legislative bodies will be very supportive, and we also hope the other contributors outside the government doing their own research and development (R&D) can raise the statistics up.
Possible big-ticket R&D projects, like the train or the Diwata satellite:
We are still not planning big-ticket projects. If we will have [to plan], we will work with some line agencies that want us to do them, because I don’t want to do something that will not be used later. The train is for utilization already. I like the model in health, for example, wherein we always agree what we have to research, and they would even transfer to us [DOST] even their own money for research. This could be on various projects like drug development.
Continuation of the available projects and services:
In the late-1990s we had the technology-transfer commercialization program of then-Secretary Ceferino L. Follosco that was also focusing on different regions in the country. Under Secretary Estrella F. Alabastro, we have SET-UP (Small Enterprises Technology Upgrading Program), which was intended for the development of regions. Secretary Mario G. Montejo introduced the program called Community Empowerment through Science and Technology, which ranged from nutrition, sanitation and education to livelihood, and disaster preparedness to benefit our ordinary citizens.
Now we are just looking at how to continue, how to expand these services. For example, in enterprise development, if we have been assisting companies that have already been operating for at least three years, we will look into how to assist start-ups that will be using technology as their basis for operations or services. That will be one level lower than the Set-up, since this will be at the start-up level.
The business-incubation programs will belong to that and other interventions to encourage entrepreneurship, particularly with technology start-ups.
I am suggesting to have a program that is one level higher. Those who have graduated from SET-UP, or the medium-sized projects, should be given assistance, so they will be more competitive and more globally oriented, so we can meet the objective to contribute more to the economy and provide more employment.
R&D to catch up:
I would like to emphasize the orientation of R&D activities to the needs and potentials that we have in every region. While continue to carry out R&D projects designed to, shall we say, No. 1, do our contribution to the generation of new knowledge; and No. 2, to help us catch up.
We need to do certain types of R&D that’s really more of catching up. And there are types of R&D that are really addressed to solve problems or to enhance productivity. But I would like to input the aspect of being relevant to specific regions, what are the needs, what are the potentials in specific regions. In that respect, I would expect our institutions to be more active and participative in that process, like in identifying which R&D can be more useful to their respective areas or regions.
Proactive projects:
While we are doing certain services now, we may have to project beyond what will be needed some years from now, so we will not only be reactive when the need is already there, and be prepared and work on what services will be needed in the future.
Partnerships:
We will also try to maximize the benefits we will get from partnerships, because we cannot, in the government, do all by ourselves. We need partners in development work wherever they are—with line agencies, the business sector, the local government units and also with the people who may have expertise both here and abroad, whether Filipinos or not, who can contribute to our development here.
There is already a program at the DOST called “Juan Expert,” wherein experts in different sectors, in different areas, are registered and the interested parties may need the services can see them on the web site.
But I would like to be more formal about it. I would like to have a pool of experts who are going to devote time. That means I would like them to be formally designated, even if they will work pro bono, they will have some identification that they are DOST S&T volunteers.
Aboitiz CSR and Starbooks:
Aboitiz’s power plant is operating in Toril, Davao City, and so its corporate social responsibility [CSR] is in Toril. It adapted two national high schools and committed to construct and to renovate the rooms and to put in the hardware. Our [DOST] role is to supply the content, the Starbooks. I would like to use that as a model to entice other companies to have their CSR project channeled to S&T-related activities.
Image credits: Stephanie Tumampos