● The iron industry, like the manufacture of

2Week 4: Brief Historical Background of

pottery, did not survive the competition with
Science and Technology in the Philippines
imported cast iron from Sarawak and China.

● Stone Age: It became developed and

● 10th Century A.D. The people of Ma-I and
flourished well for about 2,000 years and came
San-Hsu (Palawan) traded bee wax, cotton,
into competition with imported Chinese
pearls, coconut heart mats, tortoise shell, and
porcelain. They also formed settlements in the
medicinal betel nuts, and panie cloth for
major Philippine islands.
porcelain, leads fishnets sinker, colored glass

● It took 10,000 years before they discovered beads, iron pots, iron needles, and tin.
how to make simple tools or weapons.
● They learned to weave cotton, make glass

● 50,000 years ago: Modern men (Homo ornaments, and cultivate lowland rice and dike
sapiens) first came over-land across narrow fields of terraced fields utilizing spring water in
channels. mountain regions.

● 3,000 B.C. Modern humans were producing ● They also learned to build boats for trading
adzes, ornaments of seashells, and pottery of purposes. Spanish chronicles noted refined
various designs. These modern men lived in plank-built warships called caracoa suited for
Palawan and Batangas. interisland trade raids.

● Iron Age: Early Filipinos learned to make ● Filipinos from Butuan were trading with
metal tools and implements—copper, gold, Champa (Vietnam) and those from Ma-I
bronze, and later iron. It lasted from the (Mindoro) with China.
second or third century B.C. to the tenth
● Archaeological findings indicated regular
century A.D.
trade relations between the Philippines, China,

● William Henry Scott: out and Vietnam had been well established from
Pointed
questionable documents in Prehispanic Source the 10th century to the 15th century A.D.
Materials for the Study of Philippine History.
● Pre-Spanish Period: Filipinos were already

● Filipinos during this period engaged in the engaged in primitive activities related to
actual extraction of iron from ore, smelting, and science and technology. They were forming
refining. curative values of some plants on how to
extract medicine from herbs.
● They had an alphabet, a system of writing, a ○ In 1789, Manila was opened to Asian
method of counting and weights and measure. shipping, inaugurating an era of increase in
They had no calendar but counted the years by export of rice, hemp, tobacco, sugar, and
the period of the moon and from one harvest to indigo, and imports of manufacturing goods.
another.
○ 19th Century: In 1863, the colonial
Spanish Colonial Period: authorities issued a royal degree to reform the
existing educational system. In 1871, the
○ 16th Century: Development of schools and
school of medicine and pharmacy were
hospitals.
opened to UST.

○ Colegio de San Ignacio (Manila-1595)

○The licentiate degree, equivalent to a

○ Colegio De San Jose (Manila-1601) Master's degree, was granted.

○ Colegio De Nuestra Senora del Rosario ○ Leon Ma. Guerrero: Considered the father
(Manila-1597) of Philippine Pharmacy due to his works on
Medicinal Plants of the Philippines.
○ Colegio de San Ildefonso (Cebu-1595)
○ There were no schools for engineering, but
○ San Juan Lazaro Hospital: The oldest in they offered nautical four-year courses for pilot
the Far East, founded in 1578. of merchant marine that include the subject:
Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry,
○ Successive shipwrecks and attacks of pirates
Physics, Hydrography, Meteorology, Pilotage,
on the galleons led to declining profits from the
and Navigation.
trade that led to economic depression in
Manila during the later part of the 17th century. ○ Higher education was generally viewed with
suspicion as encouraging rebellion among
○ 17th and 18th Century
native Filipinos, and thus only a few daring

○ Real Sociedad Economica de los Amigos students were able to undertake higher

Del Pais de Filipinas: Founded by studies.

Governador Jose Basco y Vargas in 1780,
○ American Colonial Period:
encouraged research in agriculture and
industry. The society promoted cultivation of ○ The expanded world trade and commerce in
indigo, cotton, cinnamon, and silk industry. the later part of the 19th century led to the
rapid development of Manila as a cosmopolitan
center.
○ Modern amenities such as steam tramways, ● Philippine Innovation Act (RA 11293):
waterworks, newspaper, electric lights, and Aims to strengthen the country's innovation
banking systems were introduced in the 19th system by promoting a culture of creativity,
century. research, and technological advancement.
Signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte
○ Jesuits promoted meteorological studies,
on April 17, 2019.
founding Manila Observatory at the Ateneo
Municipal de Manila in 1865. ● Key Objectives of the Philippine
Innovation Act:
○ Americans established the public education
system. ○ Foster Innovation Across Sectors

○ Improved the engineering works and the ○ Create a Unified Innovation Strategy
health conditions of the people.
○ Develop a National Innovation Agenda and
○ Americans established a modern research Strategy Document (NIASD)
university (University of the Philippines).
○ Support Startups and Micro, Small, and
○ The mineral resources of the country were Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)
also explored and exploited.
○ Encourage Public and Private Sector
○ Transportation and communication systems Collaboration
were improved.
● National Innovation Council (NIC): Tasked
○ Science education focuses on nature studies to remove fragmentation in innovation
and science and sanitation until it became a governance by ensuring collaboration among
subject formally known as “science”. government agencies, businesses, and
academic institutions. Headed by the President
○ The teaching of science in higher education
of the Philippines, the NIC consists of
has greatly.
representatives from government, industry, and

Week 5: Government Policies/Laws/A.O. on the academe. It formulates policies, provides

Science and Technology funding, and monitors innovation programs
across sectors.
● Joint NEDA-DOST-DTI Administrative
Order No. 01 Series of 2020 ● National Economic and Development
Authority (NEDA): Leads the execution, in
collaboration with the Department of Science
and Technology (DOST) and the Department ●​ Fabian M. Dayrit: For his research on
of Trade and Industry (DTI). herbal medicine.
●​ Rafael D. Guerrero III: For his
●​ Innovation Fund: Established to
research on tilapia culture.
finance R&D projects, capacity-building
●​ Enrique M. Ostrea Jr.: For inventing
initiatives, and technology transfer
the meconium drugs testing.
programs.
●​ Lilian F. Patena: For doing research on
●​ Strengthens STEM (Science,
plant biotechnology.
Technology, Engineering, and
●​ Mari-Jo P. Ruiz: For being an
Mathematics) education and
outstanding Educator and graph
entrepreneurship programs.
theorist.
●​ Challenges in Implementation:
●​ Gregory L. Tangonan: For his
○​ Limited funding for R&D and
research in the field of communication
innovation programs.
technology.
○​ Bureaucratic inefficiencies in
●​ Caesar A. Saloma: An internationally
coordinating government
renowned physicist.
agencies.
●​ Edgardo Gomez: He conducted the
○​ Brain drain.
world’s first national-scale assessment
○​ Need for stronger
of damage to coral reefs and is the
industry-academe linkages to
pioneering study on ocean acidification
commercialize research outputs.
and its causes.

Week 6: Science, Technology, and ●​ William Padolina: Chemistry and

Nation-Building president of National Academy of

Science and Technology
●​ Ramon C. Barba: For his outstanding (NAST)-Philippines.
research on tissue culture in Philippine ●​ Angel Alcala: He is behind the
mangoes. invention of artificial coral reefs used
●​ Josefino C. Comiso: He works on for fisheries in Southeast Asia.
observing the characteristics of ●​ Roberto del Rosario: Claiming the
Antarctica by using satellite images. right for the invention of the
●​ Jose B. Cruz Jr.: Known internationally Sing-Along-System (SAS) that
in the field of electrical engineering. eventually led to the development of
●​ Lourdes J. Cruz: Notable for her Karaoke.
research on sea snail venom.
●​ Fe del Mundo: The first Asian to have ●​ Daniel Dingel: He has been claiming
entered the prestigious Harvard that his car can run with water as fuel.
University's School of Medicine. He built a car reactor that uses
Credited for her studies that led to the electricity from a 12-volt car battery to
invention of the incubator and jaundice split the ordinary tap water into
relieving device. hydrogen and oxygen components. The
●​ Gregorio Zara: He invented the hydrogen can then be used to power
videophone and developed the Zara the car engine.
Effect or Electrical Kinetic Resistance. ●​ Annacardium occidentale: Cashew
●​ Eduardo San Juan: He considers as nut.
the inventor of the Lunar Rover, or ●​ Psidium Guajava Effervescing
more popularly known as the Moon Gynecological Insert: Invention of
Buggy. Daniel Dingel that won a gold medal.
●​ Agapito Flores: Many Filipinos
acknowledge him as the inventor of the
fluorescent lamp.
●​ Dr. Abelardo Aguilar: He discovered
erythromycin in 1949.
●​ Diosdado Banatao: He introduced the
first single-chip graphical user interface
accelerator that made computers work
a lot faster and for helping develop the
Ethernet controller chip that made the
Internet possible.
●​ Edgardo Varquez: He won a World
Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) gold medal in 1995 for
developing a modular housing system.
●​ Rolando dela Cruz: In 2000, he
developed an ingenious formula that
could easily remove deeply grown
moles or warts from the skin without
leaving marks or hurting the patient.