STS 2

• The need to develop a country's science and technology has generally been recognized as one of the imperatives of socioeconomic progress in the contemporary world
• Among Third World countries, an important dimension of this concern is the problem of dependence in science and technology as this is closely tied up with the integrity of their political sovereignty and economic self-reliance
• There exists a continuing imbalance between scientific and technological development among contemporary states with 98 per cent of all research and development facilities located in developed countries and almost wholly concerned with the latter's problems
• Science

  Concerned with the systematic understanding and explanation of the laws of nature. Scientific activity centers on research, the end result of which is the discovery or production of new knowledge
• Technology


  The systematic knowledge of the industrial arts. It involves both the knowledge and the means of its utilization, that is, a body of knowledge about techniques
• In the past, science and technology developed separately, with the latter being largely a product of trial and error in response to a particular human need
• In modern times, the progress of science and technology have become intimately linked together. Many scientific discoveries have been facilitated by the development of new technology, and new scientific knowledge has often led to further refinement of existing technology or the invention of entirely new ones
• There is very little reliable written information about Philippine society, culture and technology before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1521
• Archaeological findings indicate that modern men (homo sapiens) from the Asian mainland first came over-land and across narrow channels to live in Palawan and Batangas around 50,000 years ago
• Early Filipino technological development

  1. Making simple tools or weapons of stone flakes

  2. Developing techniques for sawing, drilling and polishing hard stones

  3. Producing adzes, ornaments of seashells and pottery

  4. Learning to make metal tools and implements - copper, gold, bronze and iron
• By the first century A.D., Filipinos were weaving cotton, smelting iron, making pottery, glass ornaments, and engaged in agriculture
• Filipinos had learned to build boats for the coastal trade, and by the tenth century A.D. this had become a highly developed technology
• By the tenth century A.D., the inhabitants of Butuan were trading with Champa (Vietnam) and those of Ma-i (Mindoro) with China
• Chinese records indicate that regular trade relations between China and the Philippines had been well established during the tenth to the fifteenth centuries
• Archaeological findings of Chinese porcelains made during this period support the contention of regular trade relations between China and the Philippines
• The Filipinos in Mindanao and Sulu traded with Borneo, Malacca and parts of the Malay peninsula, and this trade seems to have antedated those with the Chinese
• By the time the Spaniards reached the archipelago, these trade relations had been firmly established such that the alliance between the rulers of Manila and Brunei had become strengthened by marriage
• Through these contacts, Hindu-Buddhist, Malay-Sanskrit and Arab-Muslim cultural and technological influences spread to the Philippines
• By the time the Spaniards came to colonize the Philippines in 1565, they found many scattered, autonomous village communities (called barangays) all over the archipelago
• These communities exhibited uneven technological development, with settlements along the coastal areas which had been exposed to foreign trade and cultural contacts attaining a more sophisticated technology
• The Spaniards found that the Filipinos in Manila had learned to make and use modern artillery, and were growing rice, vegetables and cotton; raising swine, goats and fowls; making wine, vinegar and salt; weaving cloth and producing beeswax and honey
• The pre-colonial Filipinos were still highly superstitious, and did not seem to have developed a written literary tradition that would have led to a more systematic accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, a condition necessary for the development of science and technology
• The beginnings of modern science and technology in the Philippines can be traced to the Spanish regime, with the Spaniards establishing schools, hospitals and starting scientific research
• The direction and pace of development of science and technology were greatly shaped by the role of the religious orders in the conquest and colonization of the archipelago and by the economic and trade policies adopted by the colonial government
• The Spanish conquest and colonization of the archipelago was greatly facilitated by the adoption of an essentially religious strategy known as reduccion, which required the consolidation of the far-flung, scattered barangay communities into fewer, larger and more compact settlements
• The net result of reduccion was the creation of towns and the foundation of the present system of local government, with the precolonial ruling class, the datus and their hereditary successors, being adopted by the Spanish colonial government into this new system to serve as the heads of the lowest level of local government
• The Filipinos naturally resisted reduccion as it took them away from their traditional sources of livelihood and subjected them to the onerous economic exactions by the colonial government
• The religious orders played a major role in the establishment of the colonial educational system in the Philippines and influenced the development of technology and promotion of scientific research
• Various decrees were issued in Spain calling for the establishment of a school system in the colony but these were not effectively carried out, and primary instruction during the early Spanish period was largely in the hands of the religious orders
• Various decrees were issued in Spain calling for the establishment of a school system in the colony but these were not effectively carried out
• Primary instruction during the Spanish regime was generally taken care of by the missionaries and parish priests in the villages and towns, and was mainly religious education due to the dearth of qualified teachers, textbooks and other instructional materials
• Higher education


  • Provided by schools set up by the different religious orders in the urban centers, most of them in Manila
  • Access was limited to the elite of the colonial society -- the European-born and local Spaniards, the mestizos and a few native Filipinos
• Courses leading to the B.A. degree at these schools included science subjects such as physics, chemistry, natural history and mathematics by the nineteenth century
• Higher education was pursued mainly for the priesthood or for clerical positions in the colonial administration, and it was only during the latter part of the nineteenth century that technical/vocational schools were established by the Spaniards
• University of Santo Tomas


  • Remained as the highest institution of learning throughout the Spanish regime
  • Run by the Dominicans, it was established as a college in 1611 and initially granted degrees in theology, philosophy and humanities
  • In the 18th century, the faculty of jurisprudence and canonical law was established
  • In 1871, the schools of medicine and pharmacy were opened
• From 1871 to 1886, the University of Santo Tomas granted the degree of Licenciado en Medicina to 62 graduates, and for the doctorate degree in medicine, at least an additional year of study was required at the Universidad Central de Madrid in Spain
• Pharmacy studies

  • Consisted of a preparatory course with subjects in natural history and general chemistry and five years of studies in subjects such as pharmaceutical operations
  • The degree of Bachiller en Farmacia was granted at the end of this period
  • The degree of licentiate in pharmacy, equivalent to a master's degree, was granted after two years of practice in a pharmacy, one of which could be taken simultaneously with the academic courses after the second year course of study
• In 1876, the University of Santo Tomas granted the bachelor's degree in pharmacy to its first six graduates in the school of pharmacy, including Leon Ma. Guerrero who is referred to as the "Father of Philippine Pharmacy"
• The total number of graduates in pharmacy during the Spanish period was 164
• There were no schools offering engineering at that time, and the few who studied engineering had to go to Europe