Dr. Victor B. Mariano, DOST Central Luzon regional director, said the contest aims to enhance the creative and inventive efforts in the region by providing a venue for showcasing products of creativity, inventiveness and ingenuity of Filipino inventors and researchers from high school to college students as well as professionals and ordinary Filipinos.
With the theme: “Fostering Regional Development Thru Inventions and Innovations,” the event was attended by Norma Abelgas, regional director of the Bureau of Treasury; Corita Gaduang, SSS branch manager; Neil Catibog, OIC of the Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources; Edwin Manalo, Land Bank branch manager; Benny Legamia, Jr., director of Research and Development of Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University; Geraldine Sanchez, Emelita Kepwing director and vice president respectively of the Pampanga State Agricultural University; Dr. Enrico Baking, president of DHVTSU; Felly Jacoba, vice president for academic affairs of Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology; and Dr. Luningning Llanto, director of the Bureau of Local Government Finance.
All inventors, student or professional creative researchers (from both public and private sectors) were invited to join the regional contest which served as the qualifying round for the 2016 National Invention Contests and Exhibits (NICE).
A preliminary screening for all entries was held during the launching last August 25.
Engr. Edgar I. Garcia, director of the Technology Application and Promotions Institute (TAPI), said the contest has six categories which include the Outstanding Invention (Tuklas Award), Outstanding Utility Model, Outstanding Industrial Design, Outstanding Creative Research (Likha Award), Outstanding Student Creative Research (Sibol Award) for high school students, and Outstanding Student Creative Research (Sibol Award) for college students.
Garcia said of 148 countries, the Philippines is the fastest in terms of rate of increase of all the countries in the Global Competitive Index. While other countries are also improving, what is being shown here is we have 33 notches already from 2010 to 2015, he said.
“This only manifests that with our inventors and innovators we contribute to the Global Competitive Index,” Garcia said.
