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History of Science and Technology in the Philippines by Olivia C. Caoili
Medical Technology (BSMT)
Far Eastern University
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A HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES
By: Olivia C. Caoili
Introduction
The need to develop a country's science and technology has generally been recognized as one of the imperatives of socioeconomic progress in the contemporary world. This has become a widespread concern of governments especially since the post-world war II years.
Among Third World countries, an important dimension of this concern is the problem of dependence in science and technology as this is closely tied up with the integrity of their political sovereignty and economic self-reliance. There exists a continuing imbalance between scientific and technological development among contemporary states with 98 per cent of all research and development facilities located in developed countries and almost wholly concerned with the latter's problems. Dependence or autonomy in science and technology has been a salient issue in conferences sponsored by the United Nations.
It is within the above context that this paper attempts to examine the history of science and technology in the Philippines. Rather than focusing simply on a straight chronology of events, it seeks to interpret and analyze the interdependent effects of geography, colonial trade, economic and educational policies and socio-cultural factors in shaping the evolution of present Philippine science and technology.
As used in this paper, science is concerned with the systematic understanding and explanation of the laws of nature. Scientific activity centers on research, the end result of which is the discovery or production of new knowledge. This new knowledge may or may not have any direct or immediate application.
In comparison, technology has often been understood as the "systematic knowledge of the industrial arts." As this knowledge was implemented by means of techniques, technology has become commonly taken to mean both the knowledge and the means of its utilization, that is, “a body, of knowledge about techniques." Modern technology also involves systematic research but its outcome is more concrete than science, i. the production of "a thing, a chemical, a process, something to be bought and sold."
In the past, science and technology developed separately, with the latter being largely a product of trial and error in response to a particular human need. In modern times, however, the progresses of science and technology have become intimately linked together. Many scientific discoveries have been facilitated by the development of new technology. New scientific knowledge in turn has often led to further refinement of existing technology or the invention of entirely new ones.
Precolonial Science and Technology
There is a very little reliable written information about Philippine society, culture and technology before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1521. As such, one has to reconstruct a picture of this past using contemporary archaeological findings, accounts by early traders and foreign travelers, and the narratives about conditions in the archipelago which were written by the first Spanish missionaries and colonial
officials. According to these sources, there were numerous, scattered, thriving, relatively self-sufficient and autonomous communities long before the Spaniards arrived. The early Filipinos had attained a generally simple level of technological development, compared with those of the Chinese and Japanese, but this was sufficient for their needs at that period of time.
Archaeological findings indicate that modern men (homo sapiens) from the Asian mainland first came over-land and across narrow channels to live in Palawan and Batangas around 50,000 years ago. For about 40,000 years, they made simple tools or weapons of stone flakes but eventually developed techniques for sawing, drilling and polishing hard stones. These Stone Age inhabitants, subsequently formed settlements in the major Philippine islands such as Sulu, Mindanao (Zamboanga, and Davao), Negros, Samar, Luzon (Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan and the Cagayan region). By about 3,000 B., they were producing adzes ornaments of seashells and pottery of various designs. The manufacture of pottery subsequently became well developed and flourished for about 2,000 years until it came into competition with imported Chinese porcelain. Thus over time pottery making declined. What has survived of this ancient technology is the lowest level, i., the present manufacture of the ordinary cooking pot among several local communities.
Gradually, the early Filipinos learned to make metal tools and implements -- copper, gold, bronze and, later, iron. The Iron Age is considered to have lasted from the second or third century B. to the tenth century A. Excavations of Philippine graves and work sites have yielded iron slags. These suggest that Filipinos during this period engaged in the actual extraction of iron from ore, smelting and refining. But it appears that the iron industry, like the manufacture of pottery, did not survive the competition with imported cast iron from Sarawak and much later, from China.
By the first century A., Filipinos were weaving cotton, smelting iron, making pottery and glass ornaments and were also engaged in agriculture. Lowland rice was cultivated in diked fields and in the interior mountain regions as in the Cordillera, in terraced fields which utilized spring water.
Filipinos had also learned to build boats for the coastal trade. By the tenth century A., this had become a highly developed technology. In fact, the early Spanish chroniclers took note of the refined plank- built warship called caracoa. These boats were well suited for inter-island trade raids. The Spaniards later utilized Filipino expertise in boat-building and seamanship to fight the raiding Dutch, Portuguese, Muslims and the Chinese pirate Limahong as well as to build and man the galleons that sailed to Mexico.
By the tenth century A., the inhabitants of Butuan were trading with Champa (Vietnam); those of Ma-i (Mindoro) with China. Chinese records which have now been translated contain a lot of references to the Philippines. These indicate that regular trade relations between the two countries had been well established during the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. Archaeological findings (in various parts of the archipelago) of Chinese porcelains made during this period support this contention. From the Sung (960-1278) and Yuan (1260-1368) Dynasties, there are descriptions of trade with the Philippines, and from the Sung and Ming (1360-1644) Dynasties there are notices of Filipino missions to Peking.
The most frequently cited Chinese account in Philippine history textbooks is that of Chao Ju-Kua in 1225. He described the communities and trading activities in the islands of Ma-i (Mindoro) and San-hsu (literally three islands which present-day historians think refer to the group of Palawan and Calamian Islands). The people of Ma-i and San-hsu traded beeswax, cotton, true pearls, tortoise shell, medicinal betelnuts, yu-ta cloth (probably jute or ramie?) and coconut heart mats for Chinese porcelain, iron pots,
that time.(20) This would have led to a more systematic accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, a condition that is necessary for the development of science and technology. Because of the abundance of natural resources, a benign environment and generally sparse population, there seemed to have been little pressure for invention and innovation among the early Filipinos. As governor Francisco de Sande observed in 1575, the Filipinos do not understand any kind of work, unless it be to do something actually necessary -- such as to build their houses, which are made of stakes after their fashion; to fish, according to their method; to row, and perform the duties of sailors; and to cultivate the land...
Developments in Science and Technology
During the Spanish Regime
The beginnings of modern science and technology in the Philippines can be traced to the Spanish regime. The Spaniards established schools, hospitals and started scientific research and these had important consequences for the rise of the country’s professions. But the direction and pace of development of science and technology were greatly shaped by the role of the religious orders in the conquest and colonization of the archipelago and by economic and trade adopted by the colonial government.
The interaction of these forces and the resulting socio-economic and political changes must, therefore, be analyzed in presenting a history of science and technology in the Philippines.
Spanish conquest and the colonization of the archipelago were greatly facilitated by the adoption of an essentially religious strategy which had earlier been successfully used in Latin America. Known as reduccion, it required the consolidation of the far-flung, scattered barangay communities into fewer, larger and more compact settlements within the hearing distance of the church bells. This was a necessary response to the initial shortage of Spanish missionaries in the Philippines. This policy was carried out by a combination of religious conversion and military force.
The net result of reduccion was the creation of towns and the foundation of the present system of local government. The precolonial ruling class, the datus and their hereditary successors, were adopted by the Spanish colonial government into this new system to serve as the heads of the lowest level of local government; i. as cabezas de barangay. The colonial authorities found the new set-up expeditious for establishing centralized political control over the archipelago -- for the imposition and collection of the tribute tax, enforcement of compulsory labor services among the native Filipinos, and implementation of the compulsory sale of local products to the government.
The Filipinos naturally resisted reduccion as it took them away from their rice fields, the streams and the forests which were their traditional sources of livelihood and also subjected them to the onerous economic exactions by the colonial government. Thus the first century of Spanish rule brought about serious socio-economic dislocation and a decline kin agricultural production and traditional crafts in many places. In the region surrounding the walled city of Manila, Filipinos migrated from their barangays to the city in order to serve in the convents and thus avoid the compulsory labor services in the shipyards and forests. Over the centuries, this population movement would greatly contribute to the congestion of Manila and its suburbs.
The religious orders likewise played a major role in the establishment of the colonial educational system in the Philippines. They also influenced the development of technology and promotion of scientific research. Hence, these roles must next be examined.
Various decrees were issued in Spain calling for the establishment of a school system in the colony but these were not effectively carried out. Primary instruction during the Spanish regime was generally taken care of by the missionaries and parish priests in the villages and towns. Owing to the dearth of qualified teachers, textbooks and other instructional materials, primary instruction was mainly religious education. Higher education was provided by schools set up by the different religious orders in the urban centers, most of them in Manila. For example, the Jesuits founded in Cebu City the Colegio de San Ildefonso (1595) and in Manila, the Colegio de San Ignacio (1595), the Colegio de San Jose (1601) and the Ateneo de Manila (1859). The Dominicans had the Colegio de San Juan de Letran (1640) in Manila. Access to these schools was, however, limited to the elite of the colonial society -- the European-born and local Spaniards, the mestizos and a few native Filipinos. Courses leading to the B. degree, Bachiller en Artes, were given which by the nineteenth century included science subjects such as physics, chemistry, natural history and mathematics.
On the whole, however, higher education was pursued for the priesthood or for clerical positions in the colonial administration. It was only during the latter part of the nineteenth century that technical/ vocational schools were established by the Spaniards.(26)
Throughout the Spanish regime, the royal and pontifical University of Santo Tomas remained as the highest institution of learning. Run by the Dominicans, it was established as a college in 1611 by Fray Miguel de Benavides. It initially granted degrees in theology, philosophy and humanities. During the eighteenth century, the faculty of jurisprudence and canonical law was established. In 1871, the schools of medicine and pharmacy were opened. From 1871 to 1886, the University of Santo Tomas granted the degree of Licenciado en Medicina to 62 graduates. For the doctorate degree in medicine, at least an additonal year of study was required at the Universidad Central de Madrid in Spain.
The study of pharmacy consisted of a preparatory course with subjects in natural history and general chemistry and five years of studies in subjects such as pharmaceutical operations at the school of pharmacy. At the end of this period of the degree of Bachiller en Farmacia was granted. The degree of licentiate in pharmacy, which was equivalent to a master's degree, was granted after two years of practice in a pharmacy, one lof which could be taken simultaneously with the academic courses after the second year course of study. In 1876, the university granted the bachelor's degree in pharmacy to its first six graduates in the school of pharmacy. Among them was Leon Ma. Guerrero, who is usually referred to as the "Father of Philippine Pharmacy" becuase of his extensive work on the medicinal plants of the Philippines and their uses. The total number of graduates in pharmacy during the Spanish period was 164.
There were no schools offering engineering at that time. The few who studied engineering had to go to Europe. There was a Nautical School created on 1 January 1820 which offered a four-year course of study (for the profession of pilot of merchant marine) that included subjects as arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physics, hydrography, meteorology, navigation and pilotage. A School of Commercial Accounting and a School of French and English Languages were established in 1839.
In 1887, the Manila School of Agriculture was created by royal decree but it was able to open only in July 1889. The School was designed to provide theoretical and practical education of skilled farmers
was able to pursue studies in Medicine and specialize in ophthalmology in Spain and Germany; Graciano Apacible who studied medicine in Madrid; Antonio Luna who obtained his Ph. in pharmacy in Madrid and later worked with renowned scientists in Ghent and Paris; Jose Alejandrino who took up engineering in Belgium, and others. It was this group of students which set up the Propaganda Movement in Europe that eventually led to the Philippine revolution against Spain.
The religious orders provided most of the teaching force and institutions of learning in the colony. This was similar to the situation that had earlier prevailed in Europe (where they had come from) during the medieval ages. Inevitably, members of the religious orders also took the lead in technological innovation and scientific research. This involvement invariably arose from their need to provide for basic necessities as they went around the archipelago to perform their missionary work of propagating the Catholic faith and to finance the colleges, hospitals and orphanages that they had established.
The Spaniards introduced the technology of town planning and building with stones, brick and tiles. In many places, religious (such as Bishop Salazar in Manila) personally led in these undertakings. Because of the lack of skilled Filipinos in these occupations, the Spaniards had to import Chinese master builders, artisans and masons. The native Filipinos were drafted, through the institution of compulsory labor services, to work on these projects. In this manner, the construction of the walls of Manila, its churches, convents, hospitals, schools and public buildings were completed by the seventeenth century.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century, the religious orders had established several charity hospitals in the archipelago and in fact provided the bulk of this public service. These hospitals became the setting for rudimentary scientific work during the Spanish regime long before the establishment of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) college of medicine. Research in these institutions were confined to pharmacy and medicine and concentrated on the problems of infectious diseases, their causes and possible remedies. Several Spanish missionaries observed, catalogued and wrote about Philippine plants, particularly those with medicinal properties. The most notable of these was Father Fernando de Sta. Maria's Manual de Medicinas Caseras published in 1763 which was so in demand that it had undergone several editions by 1885.
By the second half of the nineteenth century, studies of infectious diseases such as smallpox, cholera, bubonic plague, dysentery, leprosy and malaria were intensified with the participation of graduates of medicine and pharmacy from UST.(45) At this time, native Filipinos began to participate in scientific research. In 1887, the Laboratorio Municipal de Ciudad de Manila was created by decree. Its main functions were to conduct biochemical analyses for public health and to undertake specimen examinations for clinical and medico-legal cases. It had a publication called Cronica de Ciencias Medicas de Filipinas showing scientific studies being done during that time.
There was very little development in Philippine agriculture and industry during the first two centuries of Spanish rule. This was largely due to the dependence of the Spanish colonizers on the profits from the Galleon or Manila-Acapulco trade, which lasted from 1565 to 1813. It was actually based on the trade with China which antedated Spanish rule. The galleons brought to Latin America Chinese goods -- silk and other cloths, porcelain and the like -- and brought back to Manila Mexican silver. When the Spanish and Portuguese thrones were united from 1581 to 1640, goods brought to Manila by ships from Japan and Portuguese ships from Siam, India, Malacca, Borneo and Cambodia were also carried by the galleons to Mexico. During the time, Manila prospered as the entrepot of the Orient.
The Filipinos hardly benefited from the Galleon trade. Direct participation in the trade was limited to Spanish inhabitants of Manila who were given shares of lading space in the galleons. Many of them simply speculated on these trading rights and lived off on their profits. It was the Chinese who profited most from the trade. They acted as the trade's packers, middlemen, retailers and also provided services and other skills which the Spanish community in Intramuros needed.
Spanish preoccupation with the Manila Galleon eventually led to the neglect of agriculture and mining and the decline of native handicrafts and industries in the Philippines. The deleterious effects of the trade on the archipelago's domestic economy had been pointed out by some Spanish officials as early as 1592. But this seems to have been largely ignored by colonial policy-makers. Only the local shipbuilding industry continued to prosper because of necessity -- to build the galleons and other ships required for internal commerce and the defense of the archipelago. This had become quite well developed according to a French visitor in the nineteenth century. He observed:
In many provinces shipbuilding is entirely in the hands of the natives. The excellence of their work is proof that they are perfectly capable of undertaking the study of abstruse sciences and that mathematical equations are by no means beyond their comprehension....
Agricultural development was left to the resident Chinese and the Spanish friars. The latter saw in the cultivation of their large estates around Manila a steady source of financial support for their churches, colleges, hospitals and orphanages in Intramuros. The friar estates profited from the expanding domestic food market as a result of the population growth of Manila and its suburbs. But the friars contribution in the development of existing agricultural technology was more of quantitative than qualitative in nature. The profitability of their estates was largely derived from the intensive exploitation of native technology and their free compulsory personal services.
Successive shipwrecks of and piratical attacks on the galleons to Mexico led to declining profits from the trade and triggered an economic depression in Manila during the latter part of the seventeenth century. This situation was aggravated by increasing restrictions on the goods carried by the Manila Galleon as a consequence of opposition coming from Andalusion merchants and mercantilists in Spain.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Bourbon dynasty ascended to the Spanish throne and brought with it political and economic ideas of the French Enlightenment. This paved the way for more government attention to the economic development of the Philippines. Enterprising Spaniards began to exploit the mineral wealth of the islands, develop its agriculture, and establish industries. These efforts were further encouraged by the need to promote economic recovery after the British Occupation of Manila in 1762-1764.
Research in agriculture and industry was encouraged by the founding of the Real Sociedad Economica de los Amigos del Pais de Filipinas (Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Philippines) by Governador Jose Basco y Vargas under authority of a royal decree of 1780. Composed of private individuals and government officials, the Society functioned somewhat like the European learned societies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and a modern National Research Council, It undertook the promotion of the cultivation of indigo, cotton, cinnamon, and pepper and the development of the silk industry. During the nineteenth century, it was endowed with funds which it used to provide prizes for successful experiments and inventions for the improvement of agriculture and
At the end of the Spanish regime, the Philippines had evolved into a primary agricultural exporting economy. Progress in agriculture had been made possible by some government support for research and education in this field. But it was largely the entry of foreign capital and technology which brought about the modernization of some sectors, notably sugar and hemp production. The lack of interest and support for research and development of native industries like weaving, for example, eventually led to their failure to survive the competition with foreign imports. Because of necessity and the social prestige attached to university education, medicine and pharmacy remained the most developed science-based professions during the Spanish regime.
Science and Technology during the First Republic
There was very little development in science and technology during the short-lived Philippine Republic (1898-1900). The government took steps to establish a secular educational system by a decree of 19 October 1898; it created the Universidad Literaria de Filipinas as a secular, state-supported institution of higher learning. It offered courses in law, medicine, surgery, pharmacy and notary public. During its short life, the University was able to hold graduation exercises in Tarlac on 29 September 1899 when degrees in medicine and law were awarded.
Developments in Science and Technology
During the American Regime
Science and technology in the Philippines advanced rapidly during the American regime. This was made possible by the simultaneous government encouragement and support for an extensive public education system; the granting of scholarships for higher education in science and engineering; the organization of science research agencies and establishment of science-based public services.
The Americans introduced a system of secularized public school education as soon as civil government was set up in the islands. On 21 January 1901, the Philippine Commision, which acted as the executive and legislative body for the Philippines until 1907, promulgated Act No. 74 creating a Department of Public Instruction in the Philippines. It provided for the establishment of schools that would give free primary education, with English as the medium of instruction. This was followed by the setting up of a Philippine Normal School to train Filipino teachers. Secondary schools were opened after a further enactment of the Philippine in Commission in 1902. The Philippine Medical School was established in 1905 and was followed by other professional and technical schools. These were later absorbed into the University of the Philippines.
The colonial authorities initially adopted a coordinated policy for the promotion of higher education in the sciences and government research institutions and agencies performing technical functions. The University of the Philippines was created on 18 June 1908 by Act of the Philippine Legislature. Among the first colleges to be opened were the College of Agriculture in Los Baños, Laguna in 1909, the Colleges of Liberal Arts, Engineering and Veterinary Medicine in 1910 and the College of Law in 1911. By 1911, the University had an enrollment of 1,400 students, Four Years later, its enrollment had almost doubled (to 2,398) and the University included two new units, a School of Pharmacy and a Graduate School of Tropical
Medicine and Public Health. In 1916, the School of Forestry and Conservatory of Music were established; and in 1918, the College of Education was opened.
Except in the College of Medicine, where there were already a number of Filipino physicians who were qualified to become its faculty members when it was opened in 1907, most of the early instructors and professor in the sciences and engineering at the University of the Philippines were Americans and other foreigners. Qualified Filipinos were sent abroad for advanced training and by this means foreign faculty were gradually replaced by Filipinos. For example, in 1920, Filipino Ph. graduates of U. universities took over the Department of Agriculture Chemistry in the College of Agriculture. By December 1926, the university's enrollment in all colleges had reached 6,464 and out of a total teaching staff of 463, only 44 were Americans and other foreigners.
Before 1910, the American colonial government encouraged young men and women to get higher professional education as much as possible in American colleges. In 1903, the Philippine commission passed an Act to finance the sending of 135 boys and girls of high school age to the United States to be educated as teachers, engineers, physicians and lawyers. One third of these were chosen by the governor- general on a nation-wide basis and the rest by the provincial authorities. In exchange for this privilege, the pensionados, as they came to be called, were to serve in the public service for five years after their return from their studies. Between 1903 and 1912, 209 men and women were educated under this program in American schools. After the establishment of the University of the Philippines, scholarships for advanced studies of a scientific or technical nature in American Universities were given only in preparation for assignment to jobs in the public service.
The Philippine Commission introduced science subjects and industrial and vocational education into the Philippine school system but they found that industrial and vocation courses were very unpopular with the Filipinos. When the Manila Trade School was opened in 1901, the school authorities found it difficult to get students to enroll in these courses. Because of their almost 400 years of colonial experience under the Spaniards, middle class Filipinos had developed a general disdain for manual work and a preference for the prestigious professions of the time, namely, the priesthood, law and medicine. Education in these professions came to be regarded as the means of making the best of the limited opportunities in the Spanish colonial bureaucracy and thus of rising from one's social class. Hence, even at the newly-opened University of the Philippines, it was difficult to get students to enroll in courses which required field work such as, for example, agriculture, veterinary medicine, engineering and other applied science. Scholarships were thus offered by the government to attract a sufficient number of students to enroll in courses that were needed to fill up the technical positions in the government service.
In the field of medicine, the Philippine Commission provided for as many scholarships as there were regularly organized provinces in the Islands. These were awarded by the school departments after competitive examinations in the provinces. A recipient of these scholarships was required to return to the province from whence he came and to serve as a physician for as many years as his medical education was paid for by the government. This policy was adopted not only to assure the medical school a continuing supply of carefully selected students but also to ensure a balanced geographical distribution of physicians in the different provinces and to counteract their tendency to settle in the large urban areas.
of four within the Department of Public Instruction -- a superintendent, an assistant superintendent and two supervisors.
The number of private colleges increased rapidly. In 1925 a survey of the educational system of the Island was authorized Survey which was headed by Paul Monroe made a comprehensive investigation of all public and private institutions of learning in the country. The Monroe Survey found most private schools substandard. It reported that most of these were physically ill equipped and with more part-time than full-time faculty members. Among the private colleges and universities, it found out that: "The equipment of all these institutions is owefully inadequate, the laboratory for the teaching of science being but a caricature of the real thing".
As a consequence of the findings of the Monroe Survey, the Government took steps to improve the machinery for the supervision of private schools. The Philippine Legislature created the Office of Private Education to look into such matters as physical plant, school facilities, libraries, laboratory equipment and student load, and administrative work such as enforcement of relevant government regulations, evaluating credits taken by students, managing admission of foreign students and the like. As a result of the increased outlay for supervision of private schools, their standards were improved.
During the American regime, the development of science gained more government support along with efforts to establish an old extensive public school system and public health programs. The old Laboratorio Municipal was absorbed by the Bureau of Government Laboratories created by the Philippine Commission in 1901. In 1905, the latter was reorganized and renamed Bureau of Science. It remained the principal government research establishment until the end of the Second World War. It had a biological laboratory, a chemical laboratory, a serum laboratory for the production of vaccine virus, serums and prophylactics, a library. Most of the senior scientists in the Bureau were initially Americans but as Filipinos acquired the necessary training, they gradually took over their positions.
The Bureau of Science served as a valuable training ground for Filipino scientists. It performed the needed chemical and biological examinations for the Philippine General Hospital and Bureau of Health and manufactured the serums and prophylactics needed by the latter. Pioneering research was done at the Bureau of Science on such diseases as leprosy, tuberculosis, cholera, dengue fever, malaria and beri-beri. Results of these studies were readily available to the Bureau of Health for use in its various programs. Studies on the commercial value of tropical products, tests of Philippine minerals and roadbuilding materials, the nutritional value of foods, and other were similarly done at the Bureau of Science. From 1906, it published the Philippine Journal of Science which reported not only work done in local laboratories but also scientific developments abroad which had relevance to Philippine problems.
The American colonial authorities organized other offices which, by the nature of their operations, contributed further to the growth of scientific research. These were the Weather Bureau (1901), the Board (later Bureau) of Health (1898), Bureau of Mines (1900), Bureau of Forestry (1900), Bureau of Agriculture (1901), Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Survey (1905), Bureau of Plant Industry (1929) and Bureau of Animal Industry (1929) (82) From 1927, there were proposals from professional societies for the creation of a National Medical Research Council and a National Research Council similar to those in the United States, Canada, and Australia. The Philippine Legislature passed an extensively emulated abroad."
Act in 1933 creating the National Research Council of the Philippine Islands (NRCP). Aside from working for the promotion of scientific research, the NRCP actively participated in the deliberations and drafting of provisions affecting science and industry in the 1934 Constitutional Convention.
Educational and science policy during the American regime was not coordinated with colonial economic policy. While Filipinos were provided opportunities for higher education in the sciences and engineering, the economy remained basically agricultural. To a great extent, Philippine economic development was determined by free trade relations established in 1909 between the Philippines and the United States, and these continued long after independence was achieved in 1946. As a result of this policy, the Philippine economy became tied to that of the United States, remaining primarily an exporter of agricultural crops and raw materials and an importer of American manufactured goods. Undoubtedly this delayed Philippine industrialization. The relative underdevelopment of the physical sciences vis-a-vis the medical and agricultural sciences may be traced to this policy. Basic and applied research in the medical, agricultural and related sciences received much greater government support during the American regime than did industrial research.
Science and Technology
During the Commonwealth Period
In 1935, the Philippine Commonwealth was inaugurated and ushered in a period of transition to political independence. The Constitution acknowledged the importance of promoting scientific development for the economic development of the country by incorporating a provision (Article XIII, Section 4) declaring that "The State shall promote scientific research and invention, Arts and Letters shall be under its patronage..."
The government, which was by this time completely under Filipino management, continued to expand its public school system to accommodate the increasing number of schoolchildren. The Government abolished Grade VII as the terminal grade in the elementary curriculum and also instituted the "double-single session" plan thus reducing the time allotment or dropping certain subjects in the elementary school. The government also enacted Commonwealth Act No. 180 (13 November 1936) reestablishing the Office of Private Education which had been abolished in 1932.
On the whole, higher education was provided mainly by the private sector. By 1936, there were 425 private schools recognized by the government, 64 of which we institutions at the College level and 7 were universities. These were Centro Escolar University, Far Easter University, National University, Philippine Women's University, Silliman University, University of Manila and the University of Santo Tomas. Together with the University of the Philippines these had a total of 19,575 college students in all universities in the country. The combined significant increase in trained scientists and engineers in the Philippines before the Second World War.
The Commonwealth government worked towards the development of economic self-reliance which would be necessary to sustain genuine political independence. It created the National Economic Council to prepare an economic program and advise the government on economic and financial questions. Several
Private universities and colleges have similarly increased in numbers since 1946. However, these vary in standards. Most non-sectarian universities and colleges are organized and managed like business enterprises and are heavily dependent on tuition fees. To operate profitably, they tend to concentrate on low-cost courses like business administration, liberal arts and education, and encourage large enrollments in these. Sectarian universities and college tend to be financially better endowed. Hence, they have been able to impose selective admissions, lower faculty-student ratios and provide laboratory and library facilities requires for science and engineering program. The large number of private colleges and universities to be supervised and the limited Department of Education and Culture (now the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports) staff to do it has hampered effective government supervision and control of their standards.
The number of college students and graduates from public and private universities and colleges has shown tremendous increases since 1946. Nevertheless, the proportion of those in agriculture, medical and natural sciences, and engineering has remained relatively low. There are very few graduates in the physical sciences. Most students (and graduates) in agriculture come from state institutions while most of those in engineering and medical sciences come from private institutions. In both, the majority of college students and graduates continue to be in teacher training/education and commerce/business administration courses. This situation results from the fact that students tend to enroll in courses where there are perceived employment opportunities and which their families can afford. Engineering and science courses entail longer periods of study and have generally been more expensive to pursue.
The rise of professional organizations of scientists and engineers followed closely the growth of higher education in the Philippines. The earliest organizations were in medicine and pharmacy, professions which were the first to be introduced during the colonial era. As the number of graduates in a particular discipline increased, associations were formed to promote professional interests and regulate standards of practice and these were modelled after their counterparts in the United States. Self-regulation by professional associations was eventually institutionalized in government laws which established professional examining boards and licensing procedures.
In certain cases, professional organizations initiated changes in the collegiate curriculum for their specialization and worked for improvements in educational standards. The Philippine Medical Association (PMA) actively worked to improve standards of medical education by limiting enrollment in medical colleges and adding courses required for the medical degree. Academic members of the profession have led in questioning the relevance of Western-oriented medical curriculum to Philippine conditions. This has resulted in recent innovations in medical training such as more exposure of students to community medicine and the experimental curriculum to produce doctors for rural areas. In the field of engineering, the Philippine Institute of Chemical Engineers initiated a series of conference to discuss curriculum revisions for its profession. Results of these conferences were then endorsed to the Department of Education and Culture (DEC) for official adoption. In other branches of engineering, the government through DEC convened meetings of educators, members of professional examining boards, representatives of professional organizations and the private sector to update and adopt uniform core curricula for all universities and colleges to follow. These developments took place in 1973-1974.
On the whole, there has been little innovation in the education and training of scientists and engineers since independence in 1946. This is in part due to the conservative nature of self-regulation by the professional associations. Because of specialized training, vertical organization by disciplines and
lack of liaison between professions, professional associations have been unable to perceive the dynamic relationship between science, technology and society and the relevance of their training to Philippine conditions.
Paralleling the increasing number of state colleges and universities has been a rise in government science agencies since 1946. In 1947, the Bureau of Science was reorganized into an Institute of Science.(95) In the same year, an Instituter of Nutrition, and in 1952, the Science Foundation of the Philippines (SFP) were created and placed (along with the Institute of Science) under the Office of the President.(96) The Institute of Nutrition was to perform research, advisory and extension functions while the Science Foundation was to stimulate research in the sciences and engineering and promote science consciousness among the people. In 1952, the Commission on Volcanology was also created and placed under the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP). Its function was primarily basic research on volcanology.
Scientific work in government suffered from a lack of support, planning and coordination during the early postwar years. The U. Economic Survey Mission to the Philippines in 1950, noted in its Report the dearth of basic information needed by industries of the country, the neglect of experimental work and the meager appropriation in the national budget for scientific research, including the low salaries of government scientists. The Bell Mission recommended, among other things, the systematic exploration of the country's natural resources to determine their potentialities for economic development.
Following the Bell Mission's Report, the Institute of Science was reorganized in 1951. Renamed Institute of Science and Technology, it acquired the status of a government-owned corporation and was placed under the office of Economic Coordination. Added to its former functions of resources survey, testing and standardization, were the responsibility for improving industrial processes and stimulating technological development.
In 1957, a report was submitted to the President pointing out the deterioration of Philippine science since the early years of the American regime. The report analyzed the causes of this decline -- the lack of government support; dearth of scientists of high training and ability; low morale of scientists and a lack of public awareness of Science. It made several recommendations towards a long-range development of science in the country. Consequently, Congress enacted the Science Act of 1958.
The Science Act created the National Science Development Board (NSDB) to formulate policies for the development of science and coordinate the work of science agencies. The Act also created the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) and placed these, along with the NRCP, under the NSDB.
In the 1960s additional science agencies were created by law which thereby expanded NSDB's organization and functions. These were the Philippine Inventors Commission (1964), Philippine Coconut Research Institute (1964), Philippine Textile Research Institute (1967), and Forest Products Research and Industries Development Commission (1969).(102) Several existing agencies were also attached to NSDB for policy coordination -- the NRCP, Metals Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC), the SFP, Philippine Science High School (PSHS) and Philippine Council for Agriculture and Resources Research (PCARR).
developed countries, thus creating a "brain drain" or loss of valuable human resources for the Philippines. (108) Worse still, this "brain drain" helps to perpetuate Philippine dependent development as many of those who leave are highly educated and better trained professionals who are needed in the country's development efforts. There is thus a need for the government to critically reexamine the interrelations between past and present education and science policies with those of its economic development policies in order to be able to redirect these towards the goal of attaining a strong, self- reliant economy and society. A well developed national science and technology is a critical factor in the achievement of this goal.
History of Science and Technology in the Philippines by Olivia C. Caoili
Course: Medical Technology (BSMT)
University: Far Eastern University
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