ANGARA URGES DOST TO JUSTIFY COUNTRY'S S&T INVESTMENT

As the Congress' budget season begins, Senator Edgardo J. Angara challenged the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to generate more development-oriented results that are focused on solving key national problems.

He said line agencies need to show measurable results of their work for the past year as they defend their budget allotments in Congress. Moreover, the DOST must show its most notable achievements over the past four to five decades that the government has been investing in S&T.

Angara affirmed the importance of the DOST and its attached agencies, but said that it needs to develop more strategic programs that directly address pressing issues.

"Research and development (R&D) conducted by DOST should be geared toward concrete goals, especially in helping solve developmental problems like poverty, the lack of jobs in the countryside, low agricultural yields and solving fish kills," said Angara.

He reiterated that Filipinos do not lack talent or skill but the programs that effectively harness these talents to address the country's manifold needs.

"The DOST can be an engine of Filipino innovation focused on creating high-tech jobs," said Angara. "The growth of S&T will not only improve the quality of life through the technologies that it makes available. It will also create more opportunities for employment for more Filipinos."

The Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), chaired by Angara, has tapped the likes of world-renowed engineer Dr. Greg Tangonan to create e-jeepneys, e-tricycles and other "green transport" vehicles that provide cheaper and more environmental alternatives to fuel-burning modes of transport. Many of these technologies are currently being used in various cities in Metro Manila, but the industry has yet to adopt them on a large scale.

"We have to be vigorous in fostering collaboration between the government's S&T agencies, the academe, and industry in order to make these technologies both responsive to national needs and accessible and usable to communities," added Angara. "We must have concrete results to show for the two generations' worth of investment we have poured into S&T."