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Ike Señeres
Former Technology Resource Center (TRC)
Director General Ms. Chitang Nakpil has defined “technology” in a way that
everybody could easily understand. She said that “technology is a better way of
doing things”. Mr. Ito Carlos, Chairman of the Philippine Foundation for
Science and Technology (PFST) defines “technology” by way of comparison, saying
that “technology is the application of science”. In a manner of speaking, the
definitions of Ms. Nakpil and Mr. Carlos actually compliments each other, if we
could all agree that “technology is the application of science, to do things in
a better way”.
It is a long story how I ended up in the
science and technology (S&T) advocacy. I became familiar with TRC way back
in my days with the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS), when I was a Group
Product Manager and Assistant Vice President of Bliss Marketing Corporation
(BLISSMARK) which was also a subsidiary of the Human Settlements Development
Corporation (HSDC), in the same way that TRC was also an HSDC subsidiary at
that time. As a matter of fact, BLISSMARK and TRC were next door neighbors in
our Makati offices.
After my stint with MHS, I became a Senior
Partner of Technology Ventures, Inc. (TVI), a company founded by Mr. Arthur
Alvendia who was also a former Director General of TRC, just like Ms. Nakpil.
It was in TVI that I learned hands on how to apply science in the form of
technology, in the manner that Mr. Carlos has described. Looking back, Mr.
Alvendia showed me how to turn technologies into businesses, how to bring
technology based products into the mass markets.
During my stint with the Philippine Consulate
General in New York City, I became an officer of the Science and Technology
Advisory Council (STAC), an organization of expatriate Filipino scientists and
technologists that was attached to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
STAC was also closely associated with the Brain Gain Network (BGN), an
association of Filipino students in America who were working for the transfer
of foreign technologies to the Philippines.
Upon my return to the DFA Home Office in
Manila, I was assigned as Director of the Science & Technology Unit (STU)
under the Office for Economic Cooperation (OEC) headed by DFA Undersecretary
Federico M. Macaranas. In that capacity, I also supervised several offices that
were under Dr. Macaranas, namely STAC, BGN, Technological Information Promotion
System (TIPS), Return of Knowledge and Technology (RKT) and the Transfer of
Knowledge thru Expatriate Nationals (TOKTEN).
Also in that capacity, I was designated as
the DFA representative to the Science & Technology Coordinating Council
(STCC), the National Information Technology Council (NITC) and the Steering
Committee for the Balik-Scientist Program in coordination with the Department
of Science & Technology (DOST). Sad to say, both STCC and NITC are now
defunct. STCC is as good as dead, but some functions of NITC have been absorbed
by the existing Information & Communications Technology Office (ICTO), and
agency under DOST.
During those days, the popular notion was
that ICT was a derivative of S&T, a legal fiction that should still be
accepted up to now. That is consistent with the view of Mr. Carlos that
“technology is the application of science”. This is perhaps the logic behind
the decision of the government to place ICTO under the DOST. On a broader scale
however, we are still facing the bigger challenge of how to make use of science
so that it could already be applied or deployed in the form of technology, and
I do not mean ICT only.
I thought I knew everything about TRC, until
I heard from Mr. Dennis Cunanan, the incumbent TRC Director General that it is
supposed to be the repository of S&T for the good of the people. On a
higher scale, it is supposed to be the repository of all S&T for the long
term survival of our nation. In this sense, it is good to know that TRC is now
under DOST. Looking back however, I think it was a bad decision to inject the
livelihood function into TRC before, because it actually marginalized its noble
role as the repository of S&T.
I also found out that under its charter, TRC
is tasked with the official role of bringing out inventions to market. Until
now, I did not know that another government agency has this function. I thought
that the Technology Application and Promotion Institute (TAPI) under the DOST
was the only agency that was tasked with this function. I do not mind the fact
that there would be a duplication of functions if these two agencies would work
together, because what is important is to bring out Filipino inventions to
market. As a matter of fact, that should not be a problem at all, because TRC
and TAPI are both under DOST.
I think that it would be a good idea to
revive both STCC and NITC, but this time under one council, following the legal
fiction that ICT is actually a derivative of S&T. This time however, I
think that the jointly revived council should be led by the private sector, in
the spirit of Public and Private Cooperation (PPP). Since the idea is to bring
out Filipino inventions to market, it should have the active participation of
the DOST and the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI).
Bringing out Filipino inventions to market is
just one way, the outbound way. Bringing in foreign technologies is the other
way, the inbound way. The problem now is that there is a technology gap in the
inbound way, because it takes many years before foreign technologies are
applied or deployed locally. Something has to be done in order to shorten this
technology gap, so that in would only take months, and not years. One way or
the other, the government should make it easy for foreign technologies to be
quickly applied or deployed locally.
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