Are you a Filipino inventor who's in dire need of government assistance?
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is here to help, but there's one thing that you must accomplish first.
This requirement was tackled Wednesday, Sept. 7 by the DOST panel led by Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. during the agency's budget briefing with the House Committee on Appropriations.
In her interpellation of Solidum, Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville Luistro asked how the agency goes about in assisting local inventors.
"Yes, we support local inventions but there are parameters on how you'll be able to support, not all can be supported," the DOST chief told Luistro.
But who can the science and technology agency support? DOST-Technology Application and Promotion Institute (TAPI) Director Marion Ivy Decena provided answer. "The basic requirement is an intellectual property (IP)-filed invention," she said.
"We have an assistance for local inventors or private individual inventors under Republic Act (RA) 7459. Basically the requirement there is that at least the inventor must have an intellectual property protection filed with the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) before we can provide assistance, various assistance," Decena said.
The Philippine Inventors and Invention Incentives Act or RA 7459 was signed by the late former President Corazon Aquino on April 28 1992.
Decena said the DOST offers assistance on the development of a prototype, pilot-testing of the invention, and commercialization of the invention to qualified investor-beneficiaries.
Luistro then asked how much budget had been allocated for local inventions under DOST’s budget in the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
"The budget given to us is only about 12 percent of our maintenance and other expenses (MOOE) and that is only around P10 million," the TAPI chief said.
The DOST's 2023 outlay under the NEP is P24.06 billion. The NEP is the precursor of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) or the proposed budget measure that emanates from the House of Representatives.