8 th National

Biotechnology Week

Bioteknolohiya paran sa Kalikasan, Kalusugan, Kagandahan, Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran OK ang 5K sa Kalusugan Pangkalahatan: Mamamayan at Kalikasan

GATEWAY MALL, ARANETA CENTER, QUEZON CITY,

November 26 - 30, 2012

Who are the next biotech scientists?

Keynote speaker AGHAM Party List Representative Angelo Palmones posits the challenge of producing more champions and engaging younger generations in biotechnology.

Commiting himself as a representative of the legislature in the steering comittee, Keynote speaker Representative Angelo Palmones of AGHAM Party List emphasizes the challenge of increasing more champions to push forward the cause of biotechnology in promoting the public welfare in the 8th National Biotechnology Week celebration at Gateway Mall, Araneta Center, Quezon City, November 26.
Representative Palmones, who has been an advocate of biotechnology in the country, posited three major points in pushing forward the thrust of biotechnology - breaking misconceptions against biotechnology, inadequate policy environment, and widening the base of biotechnology champions. Representative Palmones bares that biotechnology is a powerful tool in the creation of wealth from human capital as well as from biodiversity. He promised the younger generations for a better policy environment by pushing House Bill 844 otherwise known as an Act promoting the Growth of a Biotechnology Industry in the Philippines and Creation of Wealth from Biodiversity. The proposed bill creates for the Philippine Bioindustry Research and Development Center which shall develop and market competititve, biologically-based technologies and products and establish a state of the art facilities for research and study. Enhancement Fund to provide guarantee venture capital invested in biotechnology companies. Such funds can be used as financial grants to technology start-ups with agricultural and aquaculture related products and services for seed capital and for subsequent expansion. Furthermore, Assistant Secretary Paulyn Jean Ubial, in behalf of the Department of Health which spearheaded the observance of the weeklong celebration, iterated the message of Secretary Enrique Ona that the said department is focusing on vaccine products for immunization. It is said that vaccine production on rotavirus, pentavalent and pneumonococcal vaccines are still the most cost-effective public health intervention that can prevent and control diseases.

Winners of the Biotech Campus Journalism Contest strike a pose with Representative Palmones. The theme for the competition is dubbed The Benefits and Potentials of Modern Crop Biotechnology in the Philippines.

Staff of DOH welcomes delegates to the 8th National Biotechnology Week.

Meanwhile, in response to the challenge of Representative Palmones to younger generations, the Philippine Science Journalists Association Inc. (PSciJourn), AGHAM Party List, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Likewise, the proposed bill also creates for the Agriculture-Biotechnology Incformation Center guarantee fund in the amount of Php 500 million awarded young journalists in the nationwide to be sourced fromthe Agricultural Competitive Biotech Campus Journalism Contest.

Bioteknolohiya paran sa Kalikasan, Kalusugan, Kagandahan, Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran

GATEWAY MALL, ARANETA CENTER, QUEZON CITY,
November 26 - 30, 2012

OK ang 5K sa Kalusugan Pangkalahatan: Mamamayan at Kalikasan

Making Media advocates of biotech

Encouraging media partners and practitioners to promote biotechnology

Dr. Candida Adalla, Department of Agriculture Dr. Virginia Novenario - Enriquez DOST, PCIEERD Dr. Evanegeline Castillo DENR, ERDB Spearheading the 8th National Biotechnology Week, the Department of Health, together with the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Environment and Natural Resources, Science and Technololgy, Trade and Industry, Interior and Local Government, and the Commission on Higher Education, worked with several media partners in increasing public understanding and knowledge on the benefits and impacts as well as the safe and responsible use and application of biotechnology in the country. DOH Assistant Secretary Paulyn Jean Ubial shared that there are around 155 biotechnology drugs and vaccines that are approved for use and the biopharmaceutical industries are still working A jampacked venue of more than 300 students, local government units, national and regional line agencies graced the first scientific forum of the 8th National Biotechnology Week sponsored by the Department of Agriculture. hard to develop more life-saving biotech products. Media practitioners, as stressed by the panelists, plays a critical role in breaking misconceptions, changing behavioral patterns and increasing awareness of the public for biotechnology. Among the speakers for the media forum were Dr. Candida Adalla of the Department of Agriculture, Assistant Secretary Dr. Paulyn Jean Ubial of the Department of Health, Dr. Virginia Novenario - Enriquez of the Department of Science and Technology and Dr. Evangeline Castillo of the Department of Enviornment and Natural Resources. The media forum was hosted by Dr. Aristotle Carandang of the Department of Science and Technology. The forum engaged the common Filipinos with issues ranging from food and agriculture, health, environment and the promises of biotechnology in the near future. Dr. Evelyn Mendoza, member of the National Academy of Science and Technology explained in plain terms what biotechnology is and how it impacts the life of a common Filipino. Dr. Candida Adalla, on the other hand, shared that the global facts and current reality of poverty and malnutrition leads to the increasing need for biotechnology. Dr. Nina Gloriani of the UP College of Public Health, tackled biosafety for health while Dr. Leuvina Tandug, Assistant Director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources focused on biotechnology for environment.

The logo seeks to emphasize contemporary and formal representation that are exclusive of all the beneficiaries of biotechnology. The logo was inferred from the theme: Bioteknolohiya para sa Kalikasan, Kagandahan, Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran.

Biotechnology explained and made simple

How biotechnology affects to a simple Juan de la Cruz

About 500 delegates attended the 1st scientific forum on Biotechnology for Filipinos.

Students ennjoy answering quizes on biotechnology in one of the booths during the 8th National Biotechnology Week

L. Anonuevo, A. Rosales, M. Tanghal