Marcos Jr. admin urged to raise budget for S&T

THE incoming administration of Presidentelect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. needs to ramp up public spending in science and technology (S&T) to raise domestic industries’ competitiveness.

In a policy document called “Governance Agenda for Building the Nation,” the University of the Philippines stressed the country has a lot of catching up to do with its investment in research and development (R&D), with a gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of 0.32 percent and 356 researchers per million population in 2018.

“The GERD to GDP ratio of the Philippines, which describes the growth of the country’s GERD vis-à-vis its corresponding GDP, is lower compared to other countries in the South East Asia region,” the document read.

UP Diliman College of Science Dean Giovanni Tapang blamed the low priority given to Science, Technology,engineeringandmathematics(stem)in the country’s basic education as a major factor to the relatively low enrollment in and graduates of science and engineering programs at Philippine universities.

In terms of the country’s science and technology community’s performance, the paper urged the government to raise its funding for university-industry collaboration in research and development projects. It cited the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) programs in developing such partners. It also lamented the reduction of the budget for DOST to only P24.268 billion, which is lower by P919.8 million compared to its budget last year.