ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider De la Pena: pandemic has pushed Filipinos to churn out innovations in science and technology

De la Pena: pandemic has pushed Filipinos to churn out innovations in science and technology

Published Nov 17, 2020 10:48 am

The pandemic has pushed more Filipinos to churn out innovations in science and technology as means of adapting in the challenging environment, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato de la Pena said on Tuesday, Nov. 17.

Department of Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Peña (TOTO LOZANO/ Presidential Photo / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)

“These are really a wealth of innovations that has been triggered by this pandemic,” he said during the virtual signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the SciTech SuperHighway Program.

Because of this, de la Pena has called the MOA as timely and historic since the SciTech SuperHighway Program is aimed to speed up and improve intellectual property registration of DOST-supported research and innovations.

The MOA was signed by de la Pena, Department of Trade Industry (DTI) Sec. Ramon Lopez and Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) Dir. Gen. Rowel Barba.

“I think this particular agreement will really pave the way for the registration of more and more intellectual property in IPO and this is really going to attract many researchers, many inventors, many investors, many markets if we have a strong IP system,” said de la Pena during the online event.

The secretary pointed out the pandemic has not stopped Filipinos from coming up with innovations in the field of science and technology.

“We are really living in a very challenging environment. This pandemic has really challenged everybody,” he admitted.

“In spite of all the limitations, of all the challenges and all the problems that we have to address, there has been a surge in innovations, not only in terms of the R and D (research and development) that we have to repurpose, to re-prioritize, to address the issues of the pandemic,” de la Pena said.

The secretary cited that innovations are being generated not only from researchers but also from “the enterprises themselves to have become researchers and scientists also because they have to think of innovative ways to survive

“And also from our young start-up groups who came up with all kinds of innovations from bio-medical devices to apps that can be used to even smart ways of producing and moving goods,” he also cited.

With the SuperHighway Program in place, de la Pena expressed hope that the Philippines will be able to move up the Global Innovation Index within the 30 percentile range by 2022.

“We all know that in any country the statistics in IP is always a very important component in assessing rankings,” de la Pena said.

“So this is really my dream of really going up in the rankings like the Global Innovation Index by way of IP registrations,” he bared.

He recounted that the Philippines was in the 58 percentile of the Global Innovation Index back in 2018 and then moved within the 42 percentile range in 2019.

“Today out of 131 , we are in the top 38 percentile,” the secretary boasted.

ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.