Senators push bigger budget for DOST, R&D

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. is batting for a P100-million increase in the budget for science and technology to help the country make a quantum leap in its industrial and economic development.

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) remains a “tailender” in the distribution of the government’s annual budget, Pimentel pointed out yesterday.

Pimentel yesterday proposed that the P5.2 billion budget of the DOST for 2008 be raised by P100 million instead of the P20 million suggested by a fellow legislator.

The DOST budget accounts for less than one percent – .43 percent to be exact – of the proposed P1.227 trillion national budget for next year.

Its proposed budget is equivalent to only half of the P10 billion budget of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – the smallest among the 12 departments with appropriations for next year.

“If we have to propel our country into the developed world, it is necessary that we must use science and technology as the engine of that propulsion to get us where we want the Philippines to be – as a developed country,” Pimentel stressed.

In a budget-related development, Sen. Edgardo Angara, chair of the subcommittee on finance, called for the redirection of the agriculture sector budget towards research and development (R&D).

Angara pointed out that for the past 17 years, the average growth in agriculture averages to 3.14 percent. “When you reach a three percent growth, it is already dramatic because it is more than the population growth.”

Prior to the implementation of the Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization Program (AFMP) of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the growth rate in agriculture was only two percent.

“However, also over the last years, Philippine competitiveness has steadily and consistently slipped as a result of our measly investment on education, health, research and development and basic infrastructure.   Being a predominantly agricultural country, we need to invest in R&D in agriculture,” Angara said.

With this, Angara proposed an additional P100 million for the implementation of various agricultural research projects especially in biotechnology and an additional P100 million for promotion and development of organic farming under the AFMP budget.

Pimentel cited the call of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that each country should set aside at least one percent of its gross domestic product for science and research and development. But the DOST’s proposed budget is only .11 percent of the country’s GDP.

Since the Philippines has an estimated GDP of P7 trillion, its spending for R&D should be at least P7 billion a year.

Available data revealed that a very small percentage of the 2.2 million college students are enrolled in science and technology courses -– nine percent in physical science, 6.9 percent in mathematics and computers and 13.8 percent in engineering.

Pimentel said the sad state of science education in the country is mirrored in the fact that many of the physics teachers are not even physics majors.

He said he is supporting the initiative of Sen. Panfilo Lacson to increase DOST’s budget. But instead of Lacson’s proposal for a P20 million hike, Pimentel is seeking an increase of P100 million.  – Christina Mendez