Beyond Planet Biyo
PEOPLE might be wondering what I’m doing being a speaker in a nationwide leadership camp for science scholars sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology Science Education Institute (DoST-SEI) for the third year now since 2022. Well, I, too, have been wondering myself. I am not from the hard sciences; rather, I am a historian, which is considered a social science.
But DoST-SEI believes that to stop the brain drain, we should instill in the scholars a sense of civic duty and patriotism. To both want to serve and to lead — a servant leader.
For this year, I modified the focus of my talk from human rights and responsibilities of the Filipino youth throughout history and the connection to science and freedom to the theme of “The Scientist as a Filipino Patriot,” which I “premiered” last Thursday during the camp’s first session for Metro Manila scholars held at the Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay.
I began my lecture with Zeus Salazar’s assertion that there are three main leaders in early Philippine society: the “datu,” the “panday” and the “babaylan.” I said that, actually, all of these persons were scientists. The babaylan was a medicine woman and knew astronomy; the panday was either a “panday bakal,” or blacksmith, who made metalcraft like gold and weapons, or a “panday anluwage” who was the carpenter who created boats or houses; and the datu was the most skilled “bayani,” the expert on military science. This assertion not only emphasizes that before the coming of the West, there was already science in the country but that these leaders used science for the “kaginhawahan” (well-being) and “karangalan” (honor) of the people.
The colonizers came and used science to enslave us and take away our rights and dignity, which included education, making us dependent on them, and the systematic and scientific way of brutalizing us, such as tortures and executions. Yet, time and again, our heroes also used science to advance the cause of our identity and freedom. The propagandists called “ilustrados,” believing in the enlightenment philosophy, thought we should solve problems scientifically. They also dispelled the notion that we were a stupid people: Antonio Luna was a pharmacist who also studied at the Pasteur Institute in Paris; José Rizal, of course, was an ophthalmic surgeon; and Mariano Ponce was a physician. Even in the Katipunan, Gen. Emilio Jacinto once tested electric batteries with dynamites to advance the cause of freedom.
He had this to say about freedom: “The peoples under [her] protection witness progress, betterment and abundance in everything; … and from [her] springs the thinking that probes and discovers the secrets of science.”
This brings us to the present time, with Dr. Josette Talamera-Biyo. Many know her as the Filipino science teacher from rural Iloilo who was the first ever Asian winner of the Grand Award for Teaching at the International Science and Engineering Fair, the Olympics of science teaching, in 2002, which resulted in the newly discovered Planet 13241 between Jupiter and Mars being named after her (Planet Biyo). She was my idol.
When I worked with her in these scholars’ leadership camps, I realized she was more than a mere planet. She was born 66 years ago, on March 19, 1958, in Iloilo, from