DR. WILLIAM G. PADOLINA: Humanity first before science

It is a morning when the drizzle brings with it a refreshingly cool wind that makes the drive bearable on what is known as an expressway, an amusing contradiction of terms. This is the Slex at its fast-deteriorating-concrete best.

But I am not dismayed, even as I take on the next obstacle, which is the twisted queue before the tollbooth, because I know that in a few minutes the misty mountaintop of Makiling will come into view. The rush will be natural as its lush and vibrant forests partly deplete the noxious fumes from Manila.

Traffic is light on the first daylight hours of a four-day holiday. I am on the way to UPLB to meet and speak with a man who has quietly risen to the second highest position in the organizational hierarchy of a top foreign research institute and has few equals in his profession.

In his office, there is no clear indication that Dr. William G. Padolina’s world is one confined to test tubes, genetics and golden rice.

But there are shelves of books and digests, research papers and studies, files and folders of scientific discussions, and the occasional fiction about futuristic technological trends.

He is precise to the point, whether discussing the possibility and merits of creating a rice variety that offers greater harvest for less cost, or giving a short discourse on the importance of nimble fingers while playing the violin.

It has been a reality that may have started during his elementary school years when he was fortunate enough, as he says, to have been under the tutelage of excellent science teachers whom he credits for lighting the path to knowledge and fueling his interest to become a scientist.

Born on Nov. 15, 1946 in Pasay, he graduated magna cum laude at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños with a degree in agricultural chemistry in 1968. Five years later, he obtained a doctorate (botany-pytochemistry) from the University of Texas at Austin.

Since then, his rise to professional success has been quite meteoric and has seen him being appointed to several key positions, including UPLB vice chancellor for academic affairs; a near six-year tenure as Department of Science and Technology secretary; and now International Rice Research Institute deputy director general for partnerships.

But his passion for science goes beyond laboratories and the other structures of IRRI. For him, the hours spent working with experts, farmers and researchers are not meant merely to achieving another biotechnological breakthrough only. Because in the end, such efforts may be supplementary only to, say, addressing the problem of hunger worldwide.

In the case of rice, the ideal situation would be to ensure that there is enough supply, especially for people who need it most. And if the genes of the grain need to be harnessed to make it pest resistant, aromatic, cheaper, healthier and more nutritious, so be it, even if such a development should involve a clash with others. That’s why he does not hesitate to stress the importance of the Fifth International Rice Genetics Symposium which is ongoing until Nov. 23.

He knows that huge obstacles will be encountered along the way before such theories can be accepted and/or proven, no matter how noble the objectives may be. However, he is used to such situations, particularly after having been with government.

"When you come up with a budget proposal, for example, you had to compete with proposals to build several hundreds of kilometers of roads, hospital beds, schools and classrooms. I saw that when I was at the DOST. We had to fight to gain enough prominence in the priority scale," he recalls.

He remains optimistic that people will eventually understand the issues encompassed by biotechnology, noting that the ASEAN, for one thing, has already agreed on the establishment of a bio-safety regulatory code for the region in an attempt to harmonize the different regulatory systems within the region.

"IRRI has a policy that we do not move our materials to countries that do not have bio-safety systems. We have to be responsible for conveying these materials not because we are attributing very dangerous features to it, but because we want to ensure that in the prevailing thinking of the international conventions we have not been ignoring them, and that we would like to be seen as a responsible steward of this technology."

Indeed, so many things are bound to happen even before the lapse of time or the disappearance of space, including the occurrence of natural disasters, the extinction of many species, and the arrival of new technology, all of which can be explained by science if only people could spare some time to listen and not let their emotions take over.

"Science is based on knowledge. We are now in a knowledge age and we are not going to move forward unless we realize the value of new knowledge, " Padolina concludes.