INTERNATIONAL
Philippines Approaches 2000 With Pragmatic Science) Technology Agenda • The Philippines hopes science and technology will transform it into a newly industrializing country by century's end A. Maureen Rouhi C&EN Washington lobal competitiveness, empowerment of people, social equity, a respected status in the family of nations. This mantra spills out of the lips V. lips of of Philippine Philippine President President Fidel Fidel V. Ramos any time he has a chance to repeat it. It is his list of what the Philippines should achieve as a newly industrializing country by 2000. Part of his strategy to attain these goals is to upgrade the country's scientific and technological capabilities. Early in his term, Ramos set in motion a pragmatic science and technology (S&T) agenda to focus R&D so that when he leaves office in 1998 the Phil-
G
ippines could be well on its way toward its goals for 2000. In economic terms, Ramos' vision translates to an annual growth rate in gross national product (GNP) of 6 to 8%, exports of $23 billion, per capita GNP of $1,250, and a poverty incidence of 30% or less by 2000. Those targets could be within reach. According to the Philippine National Statistics Office, GNP grew at an annual rate of 5.7% during 1994-95, and 1995 per capita GNP was already $1,087. Exports reached $17.4 billion in 1995, and the poverty incidence dropped from more than 40% in 1992 to 35.5% in 1994. Whether those indicators will continue to move toward the vision for 2000—and whether the country can be competitive in the new economic climate of the World Trade Organization—depends on how quickly the country can move in developing human resources, in placing critical infrastructure, and in optimizing the productivity of local industries. Previously considered the economic basket case of Asia, the Philippines
The Philippines at a glance
Pacific Ocean
Capital: Manila
PHILIPPINES
Population: 70,266,876 (1995 estimate) South China Sea
Area: 115,830 sq miles Languages: Filipino (based on Tagalog), English, and various regional dialects Exports: $17.4 billion in 1995; coconut products, sugar and sugar products, forest products, mineral products, fruits and vegetables Industries: chemical processing; food processing; manufacturing of machinery and equipment; manufacturing of footwear, textiles, and clothing; mining Source: Philippine National Statistics Office
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^anilcR VIETNAM Visayan« Islands _
BRUNEI MALAYSIA
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seems poised to reverse the effects of the dictatorship of the late Ferdinand E. Marcos, which brought the country to economic ruin. In 1986, a military uprising (one of whose leaders was Ramos) overwhelmingly supported by ordinary citizens toppled the Marcos regime and restored democratic rule with Corazon Aquino as president. But Aquino's presidency, plagued by many coup attempts, made little progress with the economy. By the end of her term in 1991, the country had become notorious for power shortages that crippled business activity. A survey in the May 11,1996, Economist that addressed the Philippines' economic position 10 years after the fall of Marcos said, "It will be a bumpy ride but the Philippines is heading in the right direction." Many observers credit Ramos for the economic turnaround. Ramos' S&T agenda focuses on products that Filipinos can develop to global competitive advantage, such as marine products and metals. It also emphasizes services that sustain a productive population and provide infrastructure for growth, such as protecting the environment and developing alternative energy sources. And it stresses critical industries, such as the chemical and coconut industries. Responsibility for executing the S&T agenda belongs to the country's Department of Science & Technology (DOST). The cabinet-level agency directs, leads, and coordinates all S&T efforts that support national development. The agency fulfills its mission through five planning councils, seven R&D institutes, six service institutes, two scientific advisory bodies, 13 regional offices, and 73 provincial centers. AUGUST 12,1996 C&EN 37
INTERNATIONAL William G. Padolina, a chemist who received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas, Austin, heads DOST. He is on loan from the University of the Philippines (UP), Los Banos, where he is a professor of chemistry. Success in implementing the S&T agenda, he says, will be measured by how much value and innovation Filipinos can add to products. The challenges are daunting, and the analytical Padolina reduces the essence of the task to one word: brainpower. Adding value and innovating are knowledge-driven activities, he explains. They depend on a well-trained and science-minded population base, which is still small. Beyond developing brainpower, DOST hopes to achieve the country's S&T goals by upgrading infrastructure to enhance efficiency and competitiveness. It is also helping local industries to improve their processes and products through various interventions. In the area of brainpower alone, the tasks are enormous. For the Philippines' human resources to be on equal footing with its industrialized neighbors like Singapore, any upgrading program must be accomplished within five years, Padolina believes. And it should begin at the elementary and high school levels. Given that the country has about 100,000 science teachers at the precollege level alone, he says, that means retraining at the rate of 20,000 teachers a year. That's a tall order, and Padolina says the government is only beginning to address the problem. Beyond high school, however, an orchestrated effort is in place. The Science & Technology Scholarship Act of 1994 provides 3,500 undergraduate scholarships per year in science, mathematics, and engineering. The act also provides for training of technicians. In addition, there is the Engineering & Science Education Project, funded in part by the World Bank. This project aims to produce 3,000 M.S. and Ph.D. scientists and engineers by 1998. Together, Padolina hopes, these programs will raise the number of scientists and engineers engaged in R&D from the current level of 155 per million people in the population to 390 per million people by 2000. How to keep the brainpower at home is a key issue that is also being addressed, in a bill making its way 38
AUGUST 12,1996 C&EN
Padolina (above) heads the Philippine Department of Science & Technology.
through the Philippine legislature. Called the Magna Carta for Scientists & Engineers, the bill gives special incentives and privileges to scientists and engineers, such as assistance with housing and opportunities for travel. It also relaxes conflict-of-interest rules so that government employees can serve as industry consultants, which is currently illegal. But are there enough jobs to absorb these highly trained people? "We're pinning our hopes on the private sector," says Padolina. As is probably true for many developing countries, R&D in the Philippines is largely a government activity. In DOST's R&D institutes, government scientists tackle problems in areas ranging from nuclear energy to nutrition. Its service institutes provide S&T support in such areas as science education and weather forecasting. In addition, DOST funnels R&D money to other government agencies and to academic institutions through its planning councils and scientific advisory bodies. However, with a total 1996 budget of only $130 million, there's little money to go around. "Science cannot be great without money," says Padolina. The bottom line, he says, is for the private sector to invest in R&D. "That will really be the base of our innovative capacity, when the motivation [to do R&D] is as strong as profit." But right now, he says, local entrepreneurs prefer foreign technology, foreign technicians, and foreign scientists because local capability is limited. Padolina believes local scientists first need to create a track record with the business sector and the public in general. Under Padolina, DOST has been taking risks to make a track record for
Philippine S&T. An example is the investment in information technology. The agency has taken the lead in setting up a nationwide electronic communication network with access to the Internet. The national network, called PHnet, now has 10 member nodes linking academic and government institutions. Despite glitches in the system and the still small number of computers connected to servers, PHnet already has enhanced communication by making e-mail available. "That was a gamble," says Padolina. But it looks like it's working, because it has so stimulated the interest of local entrepreneurs in networked information systems that bidding for government contracts has become intensely competitive. Another gamble is DOST's emphasis on R&D projects that can be commercialized immediately, especially if an export market exists. But some Filipino scientists are unhappy with this government position. To do R&D according to DOST's priorities, one needs to work along lines that are already known, "like making adhesives for furniture makers," says Milagros M. Peralta, an assistant professor of chemistry at UP Los Banos. "If you try to make something new, the developmental work will take too long, and you will not get DOST funding." And how can you get to the point of commercialization if you don't have support for the more basic things, asks Lourdes J. Cruz, a professor of biochemistry at the Marine Science Institute of UP at Diliman, Quezon City. Responding to such criticisms, Padolina says DOST is not neglecting basic research. In fact, the agency sup-
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ports the training of people in the basic sciences. But he criticizes the research of many Filipino scientists as esoteric projects that didn't make sense to ordinary people. The scientists "did not want to lend [their] talents to pedestrian problems, like garbage," he says, citing one of the most
intractable environmental problems of the country. DOST's current priority is for scientists to tackle such mundane problems. The agency believes the only way for S&T to become a real player in national development—and for scientists and science to get respect and financial sup-
port—is through business and the public seeing effective science at work. Through successful high-impact projects, DOST hopes to persuade the Philippine legislature and business to invest more in S&T. The export winners (such as processed foods, readyto-wear clothes, and leather goods) are
unique mission mission A different school embodies; aa unique On a midday in June in the cafeteria of a Philippine high school, a boy just tall enough to see the food on the counter was ordering lunch. Asked how old he was and if he was a student, he replied he was 10 years old, a first-year student. This boy is not the typical high school freshman, and this school is not the typical high school. The Philippine Science High School (PSHS) is different. Its students are the cream of the crop of Philippine elementary schools. Most live in campus dormitories and everyone gets free tuition and books and a monthly stipend. The school is one way the Philippines invests in brainpower. The government hopes to recoup its investment when PSHS graduates take up careers in science and technology and become part of the country's pool of highly skilled workers. PSHS was created through a legislative act in 1963. It is not part of the Department of Education. Instead, it is an arm of the Department of Science & Technology. "Because our mission is to develop scientists and technologists," says PSHS Director Vicenta F. Reyes. The curriculum, steeped in the basic sciences and math, features required courses in computer and environmental sciences and électives ranging from astronomy to electronics. The students learn hands on, performing experiments in the lab or doing original research. Summer internships enable them to work with scientists surveying the crater of an active volcano, analyzing pharmaceutical products, or tracking typhoons. In 1993, the curriculum was modified to include a technology stream. Students taking this option learn skills in electronics, metal craft, and wood craft, says Reyes. Then they go into engineering drawing and computer-aided design. The technology-enriched program aims to nurture students who are apt to take up careers in applied fields.
Reyes notes that more and more graduates are getting into engineering, electronics, and communications—rather than into medicine or the basic sciences. The trend is not due to graduates thinking those fields are what the country needs. "Let's face it," says Reyes, "people will go in the direction of the most material benefit. Reyes: mission is to develop scientists Now they're seeing it in electronics and computers." Nevertheless, graduates taking up careers in technology support the push to become a newly industrializing country by 2000. Now a national institution, the high school began operating in 1964 in Quezon City, on the northern island of Luzon. The school has since expanded to regional campuses, one serving the southern island of Mindanao and two othPSHS students perform laboratory work. ers serving the central Visayan Islands. Once a single leased College of Engineering of the Unibuilding, the flagship campus in Que- versity of the Philippines at Diliman, zon City now is a complex of build- Quezon City; Cielito Habito (class of ings housing classrooms and labs, 1970), director general of the Philipdormitories, an astronomical dome, a pines' National Economic Developcafeteria, and a sports center. ment Authority; or Carina J. Mirasol Unfortunately, a serious effort to (class of 1971), a division manager for track PSHS graduates did not begin IBM Philippines, many graduates are until recently. "After 30 years, we real- very successful, occupying high posily have to show how the money was tions in business, government, and spent, how the students turned out," academia. On that hot and humid June day, says Reyes. There's anecdotal evidence that the school's alumni are do- PSHS students were going about ing very well at work. Nevertheless, their normal business—listening to a their impact on national develop- physics lecture, building a compost ment—the return on the government's heap, observing the contents of a test investment—remains to be measured. tube, or just hanging out in between "PSHS graduates have an edge," classes. Without exception, they gigReyes says, in their work habits and gled self-consciously upon seeing a decision-making abilities. Like Rey- visitor taking their photographs. Just naldo Vea (class of 1969), dean of the like ordinary teenagers. AUGUST 12,1996 C&EN
41
INTERNATIONAL logical starting points, says Padolina, because they are proven wealth gener ators. Thus the agency readily supports research to improve packaging, analy sis, and labeling of exports and to de velop better products and processes. With so much hunger and poverty in developing countries, says Padolina, S&T efforts should address problems of generating new wealth that will lead to more government revenue and more financial support for science. So when the DOST chief challenges scientists to take up problems such as garbage, he really is steering them toward public relevance and acceptance rather than away from basic science. Afterward, he says, "they can go back to counting the spots on the back of the sea urchin." To help scientists reconnect with or dinary citizens, DOST is setting up in dustry fellowships for academics. "We want professors to spend two or three months on the [plant] floor ... so they can appreciate what it means to solve pedestrian problems," Padolina says. And DOST will support projects in spired by those interactions, he says. Hand-in-hand with developing brainpower and establishing credibili ty for Filipino scientists, DOST also is cultivating an S&T culture among all Filipinos by pointing out the ways that S&T affects their daily lives. To get the S&T message across, Padolina has opened up DOST to the media. He has instructed DOST directors to accept all invitations for interviews. He has also ordered DOST's press re lations officers to regularly feed infor mation to the media about the agen cy's activities. The result has been a high awareness of the agency among ordinary people and more coverage of S&T-related issues on the radio and in newspapers. Infrastructure is another key plank in the Philippines' S&T agenda. In addi tion to investing in information tech nology, the country is beefing up its testing and analytical capabilities. DOST is building new laboratories at DOST institutes and in universities, up grading equipment, and developing analytical methods. The new facilities will be world class, says Padolina, with Association of Southeast Asian Nations and ISO 9000 accreditation. They will allow local producers to have their ma terials tested rapidly. Major exports could suffer if the country's analytical ability is not im 42
AUGUST 12,1996 C&EN
proved, as the country has learned from its experience with copra meal, a product of the coconut industry. Copra meal—the residue after coconut oil has been pressed from copra, the dried co conut meat—is used in cattle feed. Out dated Philippine copra-making tech niques allow the fungus that produces the carcinogen aflatoxin to grow readi ly on the copra, contaminating both the coconut oil and the copra meal. The toxins are removed from the oil by re fining but remain in the copra meal. "There's always a national scare when Europe says our copra meal has high levels of aflatoxin," he says. That's because the coconut industry supports, directly and indirectly, almost onethird of the population. According to Padolina, the coconut industry was unprepared when Euro pean importers of copra meal de creased the allowed levels of aflatoxin in feed containing copra meal from 100 to 20 ppb. The industry did not have the ability to analyze aflatoxin at that level. In response, DOST developed a kit that can detect aflatoxin at levels as low as 20 ppb in copra meal. The kit uses an indigenous substitute for silica gel and a locally fabricated fluores cence detector. The cost of analysis per sample is about $4.00. The improved analytical abilities and facilities will help the country maxi mize export earnings. For example, chromite, a major export, contains high-value rare-earth elements. But their value is ignored, says Padolina, "because we have no way of validating the rare-earth content here." Advances in analytical capabilities will also ensure that exports adhere to and comply with global standards. Padolina cites as an example the Eucheuma seaweed exported as a raw material for Philippine natural-grade (PNG) carrageenan. PNG carrageenan, which contains 2% fiber, is replac ing fiber-free refined carrageenan in low-grade uses such as pet food. The Philippines is concerned that some countries producing refined carra geenan might invoke health and safe ty concerns and impose a no-fiber re quirement for carrageenan used in their pet foods. So the Philippines is responding, says Padolina, by more toxicity testing to show that PNG car rageenan is safe. To help local businesses remain com petitive despite an influx of foreign
goods at very competitive prices, DOST has programs to help small- and medium-sized industries increase pro ductivity. Interventions come in vari ous forms. In some cases, it's simple advice, such as relocating machines on the factory floor to improve the flow of materials and people. In other cases, it's technological assistance, such as im proving the kilns used to produce ceramics. In addition to President Ramos' eco nomic goals for 2000, Padolina has de veloped his own S&T indicators for 2000. "I would like to see the entry into the economy of industries that produce elaborately manufactured goods," he says. In electronics, for example, he hopes foreign-owned facilities in the Philip pines will move from low-value pro cesses such as simple assembly to high er value knowledge-based activities such as circuit design. In chemicals, he hopes the indigenous industry based on sugar and coconut oil will move from bulk chemicals—such as fatty ac ids, fatty alcohols, fatty acid methyl es ters, and glycerol—to fine chemicals. Despite Ramos' strong support for S&T and the heightened national awareness of the value of S&T, Pado lina fears that DOST is being threat ened by current talks of streamlining the government. He thinks DOST may be eliminated if the government de cides to shed some agencies. "A university professor recruited to become minister of science doesn't have a political base," he says. "You have no basis to say to the president, 'You will lose these votes if you don't retain this department.' " Global competitiveness, empower ment of people, social equity, a respect ed status in the family of nations by 2000. Ramos reiterated his mantra last June during alumni homecoming cele brations at UP Diliman. "Kaya natin [We can do it]," he said, and right now, the country seems to be on track. Data from the country's National Statistics Office point to an "improving econom ic situation." Family incomes and sav ings are rising. More people of working age are joining the labor force. Total employment is increasing. Functional literacy is improving. But if political realities force the gov ernment to "kill the goose that lays the golden egg," notes Padolina, "all the efforts may be retarded again." Π
