Aaron Justine Juco

Pharma 1-A

HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES

We cannot imagine our usual life without the advancement, caused by Science and Technology.
It evolved from the everyday efforts of people trying to improve their way of living. Each day,
something new appears that makes humans life easier and comfortable in some aspects in life.
The Philippines is still considered as a third world country or undeveloped country. Major
factors that affect the development of Science and Technology in the country is the lack of
funding of government that leads to the lackluster performance of the inventors, researchers as
well as scientist that could have developed or improved technology that would benefit the
society.
In the past, Archeological evidences shows that they were inhabitants of people who lived in
Palawan and Batangas around 50,000 year ago. Subsequently they formed settlement in Sulu,
Davao, Zamboanga, Samar, Negros, Bulacan and Cagayan. They made simple tools, weapons of
stone flakes and developed techniques for sawing, drilling and polishing hard stones. Gradually,
the early Filipinos learned to make metal tools such as copper, bronze and iron. The Excavation
of Philippine graves and work sites have found yielded iron slag that suggests Filipinos during
the iron age have learned how to extract iron from ore, smelting and refining. They also learned
how to build boats for the coastal trades in other countries.
Before the Spaniards came in the Philippines, the early Filipinos had a simple way of living and
the level of technology advancement in the country was generally simple compared to the other
countries such as Japan and China back then.
By the time the Spaniards came to colonies the Philippines, they found many village
communities over the archipelago. These communities showed late technological development.
The colonizers burned houses that contained valuable goods such as the house of Raja Soliman
that reportedly contained valuable article of trade. They burned them because the Filipinos had
learned to make and make use of modern artillery. The Filipinos knew how to write and read,
this was mainly used for letters and messages. It is a systematic way of disseminating
information/ knowledge to avoid miscommunication. In the mountain settlers, many Filipinos
were hunters. They gathered food and forest products for their living. They also made iron
lance-points, daggers and small tools used in transplanting.
The beginning of the modern science technology in the Philippines first happened during the
Spanish colonization. The Spaniards built schools and hospitals. Spanish conquest of the
archipelago was facilitated by a religious strategy known as reduccion. The result was the
creation of towns and the foundation of the present system of local government. At the end of the
Spanish regime, the Philippines had turned into a primary agricultural exporting economy.
The Science and technology in the Philippines advanced rapidly during the American regime,
they focused more on the improvement of education in the country. The government encouraged
and supported the public education system. Also they offered scholarships in the field of
engineering and science. Philippine Medical School was established and other professional and
technical schools. Later on, these were absorbed into the University of the Philippines. The
University of the Philippines remained the only publicly-supported for higher education. In 1905,
Bureau of Science was established, it was remained as the principal government research
establishment until the end of World War II. Most of the scientists in the Bureau were Americans
but Filipinos had acquired the necessary skills and experience and gradually took over.
During the Commonwealth Period, the government worked towards the development of
economic self-reliance that created the National Economic Council. This council was established
mainly to help and advise the government in terms of the economic and financial stability of the
country. The government also built agencies such as the Bureau of Mines, Bureau of Science,
Plant and Animal Industry. However, the occupation of Japanese in the Philippines during the
war brought educational and scientific activities to stop. Manila was the center for all the
education and scientific activities. Everything that was established was destroyed . Because of
this, the Philippines became an independent state. The government focused on the economic
reconstruction as well as the normalization of operations.
Years went by and the number of state universities and colleges has been increasing as well as
the number of college students and graduates from both public and private universities. During
that time, the University of the Philippines System remained the most developed and extensive
graduates.
Based on the text written by Olivia Caoili, Science and Technology advancement progresses as
time goes by, just like in the Philippines, the development of the two has been greatly influenced
by each of the colonizers, they were downfalls in each of the respective period, but the
improvement for Science and Technology rises forward.