Although there's a just a few days left before Congress takes a break for the May 13 elections, top officials of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) are optimistic that the bill creating a national space agency would still be approved by the legislature.
Science and technology (S&T) practitioners in the country may soon avail of honoraria for services rendered beyond the regular workload and may also have the option to extend their compulsory retirement for completion of pending priority research projects of the government.
The bill provides for the establishment of the Philippine Space Development and Utilization Policy (PSDUP) that shall serve as the country?s primary strategic roadmap for space development and shall embody the country?s central goal of becoming a space-capable and space-faring nation within the next decade.
From 300 film concept proposals to 45 film entries, seven films finally earned the nod of judges and selected viewers in the 3rd Indie-Siyensya Filmmaking Competition.
Signaling the growth of the country's space program, the Philippines posted another milestone on Monday, October 29, after sending the Diwata-2 micro-satellite into space.
DOST secretary Fortunato De la Pena said that under the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SETUP), 45,000 MSMEs have been provided with technological assistance with an average productivity improvement of 38 percent that created 227,000 jobs.
Major activities in the nanosatellite engineering track include the development of cube satellites. Two cubesats are aimed to be developed and launched into space near the end of the program.
The roadmap provides mechanisms in establishing Regional Inclusive Innovation Centers (RIICs), which is the cornerstone of the new industrial strategy known as i3S, as well as a central portal containing government-funded innovation research and data on innovation and entrepreneurship and ensuring its strong alignment with the needs of the industry.
The framework agreement on space cooperation will include use of Russian rockets to launch Philippine payloads such as micro- and nano-satellites, as well as the establishment of a receiving station for the Global Navigation Satellite System.
