A balik-scientist comments on doing science in the Philippines

Written on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 4:30 pm | by blackshama

I have attended a few of Dr Raul Kamantigue Suarez’s lectures in the past. He is with the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California  Recently he was sponsored by DOST as a balik scientist and gave a series of lectures. In his lecture at UP he spoke on  the low productivity of the Philippine scientific community.

Suarez’s lecture is summarized in his Star Science article that came out last Thursday, Oct 9.

Here he lists five science “myths” or more accurately some attitude problems among Pinoy scientists in doing science.

Myth 1. Basic research does not yield useful outcomes.

Myth 2. Applied research does not yield high-quality, peer-reviewed, international publications.

Myth 3. World-class research requires expensive, sophisticated equipment.

Myth 4. Lack of expensive, sophisticated equipment prevents publishable research from being done

Myth 5. There is not enough money for scientific research in the Philippines.

Let me comment on Dr Suarez’s points. On Myth 1,  there still is a general idea amongst the science community that basic research “is not needed”. There was a time when I was a newly minted PhD just returned from Oz and I lectured on the need for a “real” evolutionary biology program in the Philippines (after all our mantra is the Philippines is the center of global biodiversity). The first question thrown at me was “What’s the economic value of your research?”

There was a time in the recent past when wags said that DOST stood for Department of Suka at Toyo for the kind of  science they do, all applied. While that was quite cruel and denigrates food scientists, it is quite true. Only today does DOST consider basic science research. But even then grant applications must be packaged that the applied aspects are evident.

On Myth 2, as Dr Suarez point out some of our agricultural and fisheries research institutes have done good applied science. But this science requires high quality output. Suarez is dead center in saying that many researches come out with poor output since probably the wrong scientific questions were asked.

Myths 3 and 4. Suarez is right. For example our bird ecology research in Metro Manila required only two pairs of cheapo binoculars and sneakers. It has been through a grueling peer review and will come out in the world’s leading journal in urban ecology. This journal has wide readership and a high impact factor.

Also much of this research didn’t come from PhDs but from the efforts of MSc and even BSc students. This is proof that good science teaching results in good science research. The usual lame excuse is teaching interferes with research or I can’t spend time in research since I have a teaching load. Also even a BSc thesis can result in world class science.

Myth 5.  DOST Secretary Estrella Alabastro recentlty told us that DOST has a lot of grants but has received not too many proposals for funding. Also DOST is begging students to apply for DOST scholarship grants. DOST’s budget is now close to 6 billion. So there is a lot of cash but no takers? If we have a competitive science program, people will fight tooth and nail for the last science peso!

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About The Author: blackshama is an ex-academic OFW, now an academic at home involved in mentoring hardheaded postgraduate students and terrorizing undergrads who think they can have it easy! He blogs at "Blackshama's Blog".

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3 Responses to “A balik-scientist comments on doing science in the Philippines”

  1. cvj on October 10th, 2008 6:00 pm

    Great post Blackshama! I also find questions about economic value when it comes to basic research wrong-headed.

  2. sparks on October 10th, 2008 6:14 pm

    I think this country needs a science revolution. Its been loooong in coming.

    The value of science for me is simple: if there’s a problem there’s a solution.

    Problem: The Philippines is poor. Solution: ?

  3. blackshama on October 10th, 2008 11:16 pm

    The Philippines is poor. Solution

    Improve basic education! Education that will strengthen

    literacy, numeracy, science, useful skills and civics.

    I think many at FV have dealt with this quite well.

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