History of the Philippines: Science and Technology, PDF

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY A Reading Material Prepared by: Christine Polyanna Zabariza Department of Biological Sciences II. HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS IN THE PHILIPPINES PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD A. Culture and Traditions The early Filipinos are belie...

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY A Reading Material Prepared by: Christine Polyanna Zabariza Department of Biological Sciences II. HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS IN THE PHILIPPINES PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD A. Culture and Traditions The early Filipinos are believers of superstition and as such, they practiced animism. Animism is the belief that various objects, places, and creatures possess distinctive spiritual qualities. This practice is the earliest and the most primitive form of belief, associating their world with spirits instead of deities. Said spirits are called diwata. Having believed that these spirits accompany them in their daily lives and somehow control what occurs in their surroundings, the early Filipinos fully rely on them and as such, would solely observe natural phenomena on the basis of these superstitious beliefs. Unlike now that we know that the reason when it rains is because of the water cycle that naturally occurs, or when it rains unusually hard, there is a developing low pressure area in a certain location, the early inhabitants of our country would associate these to the doings of their diwatas. These beliefs halted the early inhabitants of this archipelago to observe natural phenomena as they are. B. Writing System Although the Filipinos knew how to read and write in their own system, this was mainly used just for messages and letters. They seemed to not have developed a written literary tradition at that time. This would have led to a more systematic accumulation and dissemination of knowledge (through passing of the literature to the younger generations), a condition that is necessary for the development of science and technology. Of course, we know that Baybayin was the early Filipino script that they used. C. Social Organization Barangays are a number of geographically scattered, self- sufficient, autonomous communities present all over the archipelago long before the Spaniards came. They were essentially subsistence economies producing mainly what they needed but with exception to those early Filipinos who are involved in trades. In a subsistence economy, goods are produced for oneself or one’s family and not to be sold to make a profit. D. Craftsmanship 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, and Luzon (Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan and the Cagayan region). By about 3,000 B.C., they were producing adzes ornaments of seashells and pottery of various designs. 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.C. to the tenth century A.D in our country. 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. E. Transportation Filipinos had also learned to build boats for the coastal trade. By the tenth century A.D., this had become a highly developed technology. In fact, the early Spanish chroniclers took note of the refined warship called caracoa. These boats were well suited for inter-island trade raids. By the tenth century A.D., 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. F. Agriculture When it comes to agriculture, the early FIlipinos were able to grow crops such as rice, cotton, and other vegetables. They were also able to domesticate swine, goats, and fowls. Lowland rice was cultivated in diked fields and in the interior mountain regions as in the Cordillera, and in terraced fields which utilized spring water. G. Settlement There were two groups of Filipinos based on their settlements. One is living along coastal areas and the other resorted to mountain settlements. Settlements along the coastal areas which had been exposed to foreign trade and cultural contacts, such as Manila, Mindoro, Cebu, Southern Mindanao and Sulu, seemed to have attained a more sophisticated technology (engaging in agriculture, developed a system of writing, weights and measures; wore colorful clothes and made their own gold jewelry, houses made of wood or bamboo). On the other hand, in the interior and mountain settlements, many Filipinos were still living as hunters. They gathered forest products to trade with the lowland and coastal settlements. H. Tools and Products Many products have been produced by Filipinos even during this period. Filipinos were raising swine, goats and fowls, making wine, vinegar and salt, weaving cloth, producing A) beeswax and B) honey, and growing rice, vegetables and cotton. The Filipinos were also mining gold in such places as Panay, Mindoro and Bicol. The beeswax is the material the bees used to construct the walls of their hives, and this material was historically used in creating statues, bronze preservation, and even treating burns and wounds. Tools were found in the house of Raja Soliman in Manila that proved the sophistication of the Filipinos living in the now Metro Manila. Some tools found were copper (for table display), porcelain jars (for storage of food and other materials), iron (used in warfare called Lantaka), and handwoven blankets. SPANISH REGIME A. Education 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 and as such, primary education was highly religious in nature. 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.A. degreee, Bachiller en Artes, were given in the 19th century, and 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. Only a select few Filipinos had the opportunity to study in Europe, thanks to the affluence of their families during the Spanish era. Jose Rizal was able to specialize in Ophthalmology in Spain and Germany. Jose Alejandrino studied Engineering in Belgium. In his time, no school or university in the Philippines offered any Engineering course so Filipinos, or even Spaniards who chose to settle in the Philippines, had to go to Europe to get an Engineering degree. Graciano Apacible was able to study Medicine in Madrid. Lastly, Antonio Luna had a chance to get a degree in Pharmacy in Madrid He was considered as one of the fiercest military men of his time. Sadly, Filipinos in this time who were not born to influential families never got the chance to specialize abroad. B. Reduccion System During the pre-colonial era, the barangays are scattered and are autonomous, meaning that they are strictly independent of each other. Now, to organize these far-flung barangays, the Spaniards employed this system in which barangays were organized into fewer but larger more compact towns within the area of church bells. This only means that a certain town will be composed of as many barangays as the sound of the church bells can reach. With this modification, cabezas de barangay were also appointed. The Cabeza de Barangay, also known as Teniente del Barrio in Spanish, was the leader or chief of a barangay. The post was inherited from the first datus who became cabezas de barangay when the many independent barangays became tributary vassals of the Spanish Crown. King Philip II of Spain, after whom the Philippines was named, decreed that the native nobility of the country should retain the honors and privileges they had before their conversion and subjection to the Spanish Crown. From among their ranks, the head of the town, the Gobernadorcillo or Capitan Municipal, was elected. Furthermore, only the members of their class could elect the Gobernadorcillo. C. Agriculture The Philippines has always been an agricultural country. And so in 1887, the Manila School of Agriculture was created by royal decree but was only able to open in July 1889. The School was designed to provide theoretical and practical education to skilled farmers and overseers, and promote agricultural development in the Philippines by means of observation, experiment and investigation. Agricultural stations were also established in Isabela, Ilocos, Albay, Cebu, Iloilo, Leyte and parts of Mindanao. The professors in the School were agricultural engineers. It was financed by the government but its direction was also left to the priests. You might think that the opening of this school was beneficial to our farmers and ultimately to our economy but in reality, it wasn’t. There were 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 Chinese goods to Latin America -- silk and other cloths, porcelain and the like -- and brought back Mexican silver to Manila. During that time, Manila prospered as the entrepot of the Orient (a port, city, or other center to which goods are brought for import and export, and collection and distribution). 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. AMERICAN REGIME A. Education 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. You see, education plays a major role in the advancement of science and technology. All Filipino children were given right to education despite economic and social status. This was a project of the Department of Public Instruction that aimed to provide free primary education to Filipinos but utilized English as the primary mode of instruction. The Philippine Normal School (PNS) was established by the Americans and became the training ground for Filipino teachers. Why was it called normal? A normal school is one that is created to train high school graduates to be excellent teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence the name. In present time, PNS is now the Philippine Normal University (PNU), known to produce excellent educators in different fields of studies. Did you know that it was also the Americans who established the University of the Philippines? The original U.P. was located at Taft Avenue, Manila. During the American occupation, it was the only publicly-supported higher education institution. And with the rise of the demand for professional education, private schooling became the alternative solution. In line with this, the Private School Act (Act No. 2076) was established, recognizing the increasing number of private schools as educational and not commercial institutions. Also, the Office of Private Education was established to look into matters of improvement of private schools’ educational machinery. Likewise, for promotion of scientific research in the country, the Americans established the NRCP or the National Research Council of the Philippine Islands in 1933. The NRCP clustered policies for scientific research development in the country into four:  Social Sciences, Humanities, Education, International Policies and Governance   Physics, Engineering and Industrial Research, Earth and Space Sciences, and Mathematics  Medical, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences  Biological Sciences, Agriculture, and Forestry Education was one of the main tools the Americans primarily utilized to establish the development of science and technology in the Philippines. B. Economy You may assume that there might be a progress in the Philippine economy during the reign of Americans but it wasn’t actually the case. The country remained an exporter to U.S. of various agricultural crops and raw materials and an importer of U.S. manufactured products. Why? It is because of the free trade relations established between the two nations. Since we export our goods and raw materials to the U.S. free of cost, we did not get the chance to produce something of higher value from our very own raw materials. Our country is endowed with abundant natural resources, only to be traded free of tax to the United States during this time. This halted our country’s industrialization. COMMONWEALTH PERIOD The Commonwealth period marked the beginning of the country’s transformation to a politically independent nation. This period brought about the birth of several government corporations that are still standing up to this day. First is the National Economic Council or the now National Economic and Development Authority, an independent cabinet-level agency of the Philippine government responsible for economic development and planning. It is the governing body that sets major development policy directions for the country. Next is the National Power Corporation, a Philippine government-owned and controlled corporation that is mandated to provide electricity to all rural areas of the Philippines by 2025 (known as "missionary electrification"), and to manage water resources for power generation, and to optimize the use of other power generating assets. Lastly is the National Abaca and other Fibers corporation, the now Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority, an agency of the Philippine Department of Agriculture responsible for promoting the accelerated growth and development of the fiber industry in the Philippines, such as abaca, also known as Manila hemp and cotton. The goal of the Commonwealth period is for the Philippines to achieve economic self-reliance. But was this goal attained? The answer is NO. Why? This is because foreign trade policies are still controlled by the Americans during this time. And another reason is that Japanese troops came in the country creating yet another chaos in our society. PERIOD SINCE INDEPENDENCE The period since independence gave birth to learning institutions Department of Education and Culture (now, DepEd) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST). The major role of DepEd is to supervise the  academic institutions under the basic education and to create policies for the welfare of Filipino students in basic education. DOST, on the other hand, was established in response to increasing demands for S&T intervention in the national development. Its main goals are as follows:  To meet the increasing demands for intervention of science and technology in national development.  Pursuing the local capability for technological self-reliance  Encouraging greater private sector participation in S & T development. Existing Programs Supported by the Philippine Government There are existing programs supported by the Philippine government to advance science and technology through the Department of Science and Technology. We have funding, scholarships, science schools, Balik Scientist Program, and K-12 program. The funding provides grants for basic researches meant to increase our scientific knowledge base. This means that through basic researches, we are able to collect valuable information about a certain occurrence affecting our society. Undergraduate and graduate scholarships are also being granted by the DOST for deserving Filipino students aiming to be experts on priority fields of science and technology in the Philippines. The DOST also support establishment of more branches of Philippine Science High School system to provide advance quality secondary education to Filipino students. The Balik Scientist Program contracts science and technology expert who is a Filipino citizen or a foreigner of Filipino descent, residing abroad to return and work in the Philippines along his/her field of expertise. And lastly, we have the K-12 program. The main goal of this program is to provide students with sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills, develop lifelong learners, and prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle-level skills development, employment, and entrepreneurship.