THE PHILIPPINES

BRIEF HISTORY OF
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Philippine
Archipelago
STONE AGE
Archeological findings show that
modern man from Asian
mainland first came over land
on across narrow channels to
live in Batangas and Palawan
about 48,000 B.C. Subsequently
they formed settlement in Sulu,
Davao, Zamboanga, Samar,
Negros, Batangas, Laguna, Rizal,
Bulacan and Cagayan.
Inventions
• They made simple tools and weapons
of stone flakes and later developed
method of sawing and polishing
stones around 40,000 B.C.
• They were producing adzes
ornaments of seashells and pottery.
Pottery flourished for the next 2,000
years until they imported Chinese
porcelain.
• Soon they learned to produce copper,
bronze, iron, and gold metal tools and
ornaments.
Iron Age
During this period Filipinos were engaged in extraction
smelting and refining of iron from ores, until the importation
of cast iron from Sarawak and later from China.

Inventions/Discoveries
Filipinos learn to weave cotton, make glass ornaments, and
cultivate lowland rice and dike fields of terraced fields
utilizing spring water in mountain regions. They also
learned to build boats for trading purposes. Spanish
chronicles noted refined plank built warships called
caracoa suited for interisland trade raids.
Pre-colonial Trading

Filipinos from the Butuan were trading with Champa

(Vietnam) and those from Ma-I (Mindoro) with China
as noted in Chinese records containing several
references to the Philippines.

These archaeological findings indicated that regular

trade relations between the Philippines, China and
Vietnam had been well established from the 10th
century to the 15th century A.D.
Pre-colonial Trading

The People of Ma-I and San-Hsu (Palawan)

traded bee wax, cotton, pearls, coconut
heart mats, tortoise shell and medicinal
betel nuts, panie cloth for porcelain, leads
fishnets sinker, colored glass beads, iron
pots, iron needles and tin.
Before the Spaniards
Filipinos were already engage in activities and practices related to
science forming primitive or first wave technology.

• They were curative values of some plant on how to extract medicine

from herbs.
• They had an alphabet, a system of writing, a method of counting
and weights and measure.
• They had no calendar but counted the years by the period of the
moon and from one harvest to another.
➢ Filipinos were already engaged in farming, shipbuilding, mining
and weaving.

➢ The Banaue Rice Terraces are among the sophisticated

products of engineering by pre-Spanish era Filipinos.
01
Introduction
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Spanish Regime

The later part of the 16th Century

Development of schools
Colegio de San Ildefonso-Cebu-1595
Colegio de San Ignacio-Manila-1595
Colegio De Nuestra Senora del Rosario-Manila-1597
Colegio De San Jose-Manila-1601
Scientists and Inventors

Trinidad Hermenegildo Pardo de Tavera y Gorricho (1857-1925).

Filipino physician and historian.
One of Pardo de Tavera's book 'Plantas
Medicinales de Filipinas' is an outstanding
study on the different medicinal plants of
the country.
Anacleto del Rosario was a leading chemist in the
Philippines during the Spanish era in Philippine history.
Regarded as the
"Father of Philippine Science and Laboratory“.
He invented the formula for producing a pure kind of
alcohol from tuba in a nipa palm.
This formula won for del Rosario the first prize during the
World Fair in Paris, France in 1881.
Del Rosario extracted castor oil from the palma christi,
literally the "palm of Christ" (castor bean), a native plant in
the Philippines.
Leon Ma. Guerrero, nationalist scientist and the so-called
“Father of Botany in the Philippines” was born in Ermita, Manila.
He was also dubbed as the 1st Filipino industrial scientist, forensic
chemist and “Father of Philippine Pharmacy.”

The study of medicine in the Philippines was given priority in

the Spanish era, especially in the later years.
The society promoted cultivation of indigo, cotton, cinnamon, and silk
industry.
In 1789 Manila was opened to Asian shipping, inaugurating an era of
increase in export of rice, hemp, tobacco, sugar, and indigo, and
imports of manufacturing goods.

Higher education was generally viewed with suspicion as

encouraging rebellion among native Filipinos and thus only
few daring students were able to undertake higher studies.
The expanded world trade and commerce in the later part of
the 19th century led to the rapid development of Manila as
cosmopolitan center.
Jesuits promoted meteorological studies founding Manila
observatory at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1865.
Jose Rizal
Jose Rizal was a polymath, skilled in both
science and the arts. He painted, sketched, and
made sculptures and woodcarving. He was a
prolific poet, essayist, and novelist whose most
famous works were his two novels, Noli Me
Tángere and its sequel, El filibusterismo.
He invented a cigarette lighter, which he
called sulpakan, and sent it to Blumentritt
in 1887 as a gift. The lighter used a
compressed air mechanism.
While in Dapitan, Rizal also invented a
wooden machine for making bricks which
turned out about 6,000 bricks daily.
AMERICAN PERIOD

▪ On July 1, 1901 The Philippine Commission established the

Bureau of Government Laboratories which was placed under the
Department of Interior.
▪ The Bureau replaced the Laboratorio Municipal, which was established under
the Spanish colonial era. The Bureau dealt with the study of tropical diseases
and laboratory projects.
▪ On October 26, 1905, the Bureau of Government Laboratories was replaced by
the Bureau of Science and on December 8, 1933, the National Research
Council of the Philippines was established.
▪ The Bureau of Science became the primary research center of the Philippines until
World War II.
AMERICAN PERIOD

▪ Science during the American period was inclined towards agriculture,

food processing, forestry, medicine and pharmacy.

▪ In 1946 the Bureau of Science was replaced by the Institute of Science

▪ In 1958, during the regime of President Carlos P. Garcia, the Philippine

Congress passed the Science Act of 1958 which established the National
Science Development Board.
Post Commonwealth Era
In 1986, during Corazon Aquino's presidency, the National
Science and Technology Authority was replaced by the
Department of Science and Technology, giving science
and technology a representation in the cabinet.
Under the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan for the
years 1987–1992, science and technology's role in economic
recovery and sustained economic growth was highlighted.
During Corazon Aquino's State of the Nation Address in 1990,
she said that science and technology development shall be
one of the top three priorities of the government towards an
economic recovery.
Fidel Ramos' government provided 3,500 scholarships for students
who were taking up professions related to S&T.
Schools were becoming more modernized and updated with the
addition of high-tech equipment for student improvement and
teachers were getting training programs to benefit themselves and
their students.

Health care services were promoted through local programs such as

"Doctors to the Barrio Program." The health care programs were
innovative and effective as shown by the change in life expectancy
from 67.5 years in 1992 to 69.1 years in 1995.[
In Joseph Estrada's term, two major legislations that he signed
were Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 (Republic Act No. 8749)
which was designed to protect and preserve the environment and
ensure the sustainable development of its natural resources, and
Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 (Republic Act No. 8792) which
outlaws computer hacking and provides opportunities for new
businesses emerging from the Internet-driven New Economy.
In the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, the science and
technology sector of the Philippines was dubbed as the "golden
age" of science and technology by then secretary Estrella Albastro.
Numerous laws and projects that concerns both the environment
and science to push technology as a tool to increase the country's
economic level.

This is to help increase the productivity from Science, Technology

and Innovations (STI) and help benefit the poor people. Moreover,
the term "Filipinnovation" was the coined term used in helping the
Philippines to be an innovation hub in Asia.
Four distinguished scientists, Academicians
Gavino C. Trono,
Angel C. Alcala,
Ramon C. Barba, and
Edgardo D. Gomez, were conferred the rank and title
of National Scientist by President Benigno S. Aquino III,
on August 12, 2014 at the Malacañang Palace, in
recognition of their outstanding works and
contributions to science and technology in the
country.

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has paid tribute

to the late President Benigno S. Aquino III, honoring his “immense”
contributions to the science and technology community, which
include the development of the country’s microsatellites.
Study Objectives

Paintings Cylindricals Seals Cuneiform Signs

First way of expressing the Way to identify goods with Oldest form of writing,
human being engravings on clay developed by the Sumerian
DOST’s
Harmonized
National
Research and
Development
Agenda

2017-2022
References
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The hand that wrote a
page, built a city

- Herbert Marshall Mcluhan