MANILA, Philippines—It’s still a long way away from the Philippines’ first Nobel Prize, but for these whiz kids, it may well be a good first baby step.

Six students from Philippine Science High School (PSHS) won six medals at a prestigious science tournament in South Korea early this month, proving that Filipinos can go toe-to-toe with the best in Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

The seniors and juniors from the state-run PSHS brought home three silver and three bronze medals from the 5th International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO) in Changwon City on Dec. 6-15.

First started in 2004, the Olympiad drew some 250 science wizards aged 15 or younger from more than 40 countries.

“I felt so proud. We never expected to do so well considering that we had less than a month to prepare,” said Benjamin Francis Rodriguez Jr., a junior who had the highest marks among the Philippine delegates.

“It just goes to show that Filipinos can compete with other countries” in the natural sciences, Rodriguez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Jan Tristram Acuña and William Tan, both seniors, also won silver medals, while the bronze medalists were Guia Publico, Cara Evangelista and Ralph Ugalino.

Acuña said the examination proper had three parts: A 30-item multiple choice, a theoretical exam with three questions, one each for physics, chemistry and biology, and group experiment on each subject.

“Before the exam, we were always in a huddle, reviewing and asking each other questions that may be asked in the exam,” he said.

“On the whole, the Asians, including us, were more reserved and silent. The Europeans were the party people types,” Acuña said.

Cramming sessions

He said the group felt a bit disadvantaged upon learning that some of the other nationals, especially the Taiwanese, spent several months preparing, compared to their own “cramming” sessions.

“We didn’t have much time to prepare for the contest due to school activities and lessons but while we were there we studied every night before the contest proper,” Tan said.

He said winning silver was “quite unexpected.”

Helen Caintic, the PSHS executive director who accompanied the students, said: “This is a proud moment for all Filipinos. Once again, we have shown what Filipinos are made of.”

Acuña said winning a silver medal meant that a competitor fell within the top 20 percent of the contestant pool and a bronze within the top 30 percent. A gold medalist, on the other hand, was among the top 10 percent.

6 points away from gold

Only Korea and Taiwan won gold medals for each of their six delegates, according to a Taiwanese news website. Thailand, like the Philippines, won six medals—two golds and four silvers, a Thai news website reported.

Acuña said the Philippines “almost got a gold,” with Rodriguez and him just six points away from the cutoff. He added that Rodriguez was ahead of him by 0.5 point.

He said the test questions tended to favor the host countries, which typically patterned the exam according to their own curriculums.

“It appeared that the questionnaire, as in previous competitions, was biased in favor of the hosting countries,” Acuña said.

For instance, Indonesia won top honors in the two years it hosted the event, as did Taiwan and Korea.

According to the IJSO website, the Philippines won only two silvers and a bronze in the previous Olympiad.

Rodriguez said this year’s competition made him realize that Filipinos can compete with other nationals in science and mathematics despite the dismal state of education here.

“It can really be done,” said the 15-year-old, who wants to take up medicine at the University of the Philippines when he graduates next year.

Doing well in competitions

Tan said the Philippines had actually been doing well in scholastic competitions.

“Among science high schools, the curriculum in the Philippines is advanced compared to other countries, while among ordinary schools, we are not lagging behind other countries in terms of what they are studying,” he said.

Tan said he drew this conclusion after the competition proper. “The other delegates asked us how we dealt with the exam. Through that we were able to see what they knew and what they didn’t,” he said.

But Acuña thought differently. “With other developing nations, we can compete. But with advanced countries like China, I think we’re one or two years behind.”

Acuña and Tan said they wanted to pursue a degree in physics from the University of the Philippines. Both said they would not mind the less than lucrative jobs that might await them when they finished school.

“Physics is really my passion … In my spare time, I try to solve complicated physics problems,” Acuña said. “My friends find it weird.”

Meager funding

But he said most other Filipino students wanting to specialize in the natural sciences lacked incentive to do so because of little government support and meager funding.

Rodriguez said there were actually many good Filipino scientists, but excellent science research required proper facilities, like laboratories.

Which begged the question: Is a Filipino winning a Nobel Prize for medicine, physics or chemistry an impossible dream at this point?

Acuña replied: “It’s not impossible but it’s going to be very tough … We still have a long way to go before we can catch up with the developed countries.”

Added Tan: “I’m not saying it’s impossible to win a Nobel Prize with the way things are going, but it is going to be difficult.”

But Rodriguez was far more optimistic: “I really think we can make it. All it’s going to take is support from government and a lot of hard work.” Inquirer.net

MANILA, Philippines – An overseas Filipino teacher has been inducted into one of the most prestigious international awards in the field of adult and continuing education.

Mumbai-based Maria Lourdes Almazan Khan was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame last December 4 in Budapest, Hungary, becoming the first and only Filipino to be given the honor since it was established in 1995.

According to the Hall of Fames’ website, election into it “acknowledges that these men and women have made distinguished contributions to the field of adult and continuing education.”

Khan is the secretary-general of the Mumbai-based Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education, which she transformed into an important adult education and civil society network in the Asia Pacific region.

The organization is apparently recognized regionally and internationally for its promotion of education work in general, and adult and continuing education work in particular.

Khan has reportedly also been a strong advocate for adult and continuing education by urging governments and private individuals to commit to providing education for all most specifically to the disadvantaged and marginalized.

Khan took her undergraduate studies at the University of the Philippines and her Masters in Rural Development at the University of East Anglia in Norwich in 1990.

She currently lives in Mumbai, India with her husband, Azeez Khan, the principal secretary (Industries) of the Indian state of Maharashtra. GMANews.tv

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — Mac, the Filipino-made explosives disposal robot, has just succeeded in first mission.

The one-armed, night-seeing robot developed by students from the Mapua Institute of Technology won the top prize in the recently held First World Cup of Computer-Implemented Inventions in Shanghai, China, said Senior Supt. Gilbert Cruz, Makati City police chief.

“We have prepared a hero’s welcome for Mac and the team,” Cruz said over the phone Wednesday.

According to Cruz, Mac beat entries from 84 countries which joined the event.

He said Mac — short for mechanical anti-terrorist concept — and his team of creators from Mapua led by John Judilla–arrived Tuesday night via Philippine Air Lines.

Cruz himself commissioned the development of the robot to help members of the city’s Bomb Disposal Unit handle bomb threats that business establishments in Makati receive every week.

The robot was unveiled in Makati’s business district last week.

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines — A Filipino priest will open the first Catholic university in Ethiopia in Eastern African, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said Tuesday.

The CBCP website (www.cbcpnews.com) said Dominican priest Virgilio Ojoy will head the Ethiopia Catholic University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Ecusta) in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

“There was this world-wide search among Dominicans but the qualifications were quite stringent,” said Ojoy, who will be the founding rector of Ecusta.

Ojoy, who will formally assume the new post in January 2009, plans to focus on three areas — a strong skeletal force, a fundraising office, and adequate facilities.

Ethiopia is a progressive African country with a population of 83.1 million, 61 percent of whom are Christians.

“I will have a careful recruitment of qualified, competent and committed skeletal force, both from the Philippines and in Ethiopia,” Ojoy said, referring to professors, administrators, and a support staff.

CBCP said the initiative of establishing an educational institution in Africa came from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia (CBCE).

In turn, CBCE which sought help from the Dominican Order of Preachers.

The CBCP cited an article in The Varsitarian, the student paper of the Dominican-run University of Santo Tomas, that the Dominican Master agreed to send friars to put up the university in Ethiopia.

Under a memorandum of agreement between the Dominicans and CBCE, the Catholic university in Ethiopia will be owned by the Catholic Bishops of Ethiopia, but administered by the Dominicans.

Among the key requirements to qualify for the position were the attainment of a doctorate degree in any field and an administrative experience of at least 15 years, which became Ojoy’s edge over other candidates.

“There are quite a number of Dominican priests with doctorate degrees in the Order. But only few have 15 years experience in administration. For those who were qualified, their provinces were not willing to give them up,” Ojoy said.

Azpiroz then asked the Philippine Dominican Province to provide personnel for the school, which will open this year in Addis Ababa.

The foundation of Ecusta was highlighted in the Acts of the General Chapter of the Order in Bogota, Colombia last year.

It had noted that Filipino Dominicans have put up a community in Addis Ababa, the House of St. Augustine of Hippo, and that the opening of the new university, with five faculties temporarily at Nazareth High School, was “imminent.”

Also, the chapter cited that the university would be an undertaking of the entire Dominican family, noting that the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, which runs Siena College in Manila, has been invited to join.

Meanwhile, the CBCE appointed last December priests Abba Tsegaye Keneni as project director and Abba Ketema Asfaw Weldeyes as vice-president of Ecusta.

The university is expected to open this September.

“Ecusta could operate starting September if the government would grant the permit to begin the school operations,” said Ojoy, formerly the vice-rector of UST.

The new university has been assured of a one-million euro subsidy from Italy, Ethiopia’s former colonizer, for the first five years of operation.

Still, Ojoy still wants to have an office for fundraising, whose proceeds will go to equipment needed inside classrooms.

The university will initially operate with five courses, including Education Management, Literature, Philosophy, Arts, and Sciences.

Also, Ojoy said the new staff and faculty of Ecusta would be trained in UST and seek experts from UST to help in Ethiopia in the operations of the university.

Ojoy graduated cum laude in 1978 from the Dominican House of Studies.
He then received a meritissimus in UST after finishing his Masters in Higher Religious Theology.

He finished his licentiate in Higher Religious Studies in UST and later earned his doctorate in Higher Religious Studies and another doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

Among the academic positions which he had held in UST were acting dean and regent of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (1990-1991), secretary general (1991-1992), and vice rector (1992-1995).

At the Angelicum School of Iloilo, he was high school moderator (1983-1984). Ojoy also became a rector and president of Aquinas University in Legazpi City, Albay (1995 -1999).

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines – Fourteen high school students from the Philippines were awarded gold medals in the annual International Mathematics Contest (IMC) prize presentation held in Singapore on Sunday, July 20.

Among the 14 gold medalists was senior Angeline Beniqued from St. Paul College who returned to the Philippines on Tuesday, July 22. Beniqued had to give up her time for recreation so that she could have a year to prepare for the competition.

At first, Beniqued was intimidated by the 400 delegates from China because she thought they were better than her in Math. But in the end, she was able to prove that she was more intelligent than her opponents.

“I devote time for it so I guess that means that I really like it,” said Beniqued referring to Math, her favorite subject.

The other Filipino participants snagged 24 silver medals and 32 bronze medals besting other students from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, and India.

Its Web site says that IMC is a cooperative organization composed of groups and individuals who are devoted in “popularizing the young people’s Mathematics education around the world.”

A statement from the organization also said that outstanding students had obtained scholarships from famous schools around the world by winning awards at the IMC.

The contest is supported by various schools and organizations from Singapore, New Zealand, United States, Russia, Philippines, India, and China.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA — Sarah Cua, 14, thought she would end up a runner-up in a numbers game against competitors from five other countries when somebody finished the last puzzle ahead of her.

But when the winners were called, the Filipino teen from Pangasinan was declared champion of a Sudoku tournament in the Asia-Pacific in Singapore on Saturday.

The number-placement puzzle challenges players to fill empty blocks in nine-by-nine squares with the correct digits so that each row, column and quadrant will have digits one to nine without any repetition.

“The last puzzle was so difficult, it was an expert-level puzzle and the time limit was 50 minutes. I passed [my finished puzzle before the limit]. Somebody finished ahead of me but, unfortunately, she made a mistake,” Cua said at the airport on Sunday.

She said she was too shocked. “It was really unexpected,” she told reporters upon arriving in Manila Sunday afternoon.

Cua, a second-year high school student at the Pangasinan Universal Institute, bested 50 other contestants from China, Malaysia, Thailand, India, host country Singapore and the Philippines in the Sudoku open that accepted Asian players of all ages.

Besting five other Filipino players, Cua took the champion’s trophy and 10,000 Singapore dollars (more than P330,000), finishing the final puzzle in 15 minutes with all digit entries correct.

She also took home a hamper of products from brain vitamin BRAND’s, organizer and host of the Sudoku challenge.

“When it was down to 5, the Malaysian contestant finished first so we felt we had a second-placer. But when all contestants finished the puzzle, the one who submitted first was declared fifth-placer because she was incorrect. So we had a champion,” said Cua’s coach, Sid Aguilar of the Philippines’ Mathematics Trainers’ Guild (MTG).

The championship came two years since Cua solved her first Sudoku puzzle, which she encountered through training with the MTG.

A consistent topnotcher in her school, Cua was among math whiz kids that the MTG, an organization of Filipino math teachers, took under its wings and trained for mathematics competitions in the Philippines and abroad.

Competing against a crop that included fellow teeners and professionals, Cua showed a fighting chance early in the competition, only her second math competition abroad for which she had spent several weeks training.

She placed 6th among 15 players that pushed on to the second round after the easy-level challenge. In the next rounds, she consistently placed first.

“She became the darling of the press during the marathon competition because she was consistently making first place so all cameras were on her. She was already leading so she began feeling nervous,” Aguilar said.

As cameras clicked away into the final round, Cua zeroed in on her game as it required intense focus and analysis. It was just her against a game sheet with 22 digits as the only clues in an 81-block puzzle.

“I calmed down and I just didn’t mind [the people] around me. I just concentrated [on the puzzle],” she told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

An intense math trainee since third grade, Cua is bound for Singapore again this week for the International Mathematics Competition on July 18.

Responding to a joke on why she didn’t just stay in the city-state until her next contest, Cua said with a shy chuckle: “Because I have to go to class.”

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines – A 16-year-old incoming high school senior won the coveted English Speaking Union’s (ESU) International Public Speaking Competition last Friday in London.

Gian Carlo Dapul, a student at the Philippine Science High School bested almost 60 participants from 35 countries with the competition’s theme, “New Frontiers.”

Dapul’s five-minute speech entitled, “Fish mucus and Foot Fungus” focused on how scientific research could serve as a cure-all for many of the world’s problems.

His speech also went well with judges for its oft-humorous lines.

For instance, while speaking about the “most expensive coffee in the world” which is gathered from the droppings of a civet cat, Dapul asked, “So, who’s had coffee with their breakfast?”

“If only we could make science fairs and contests as popular as the thriving ‘Pop Idol’ franchise. Although I’m not sure if Simon Cowell’s sardonic comments will sit well with my peers,’ he added in his speech.

Dapul is the second Filipino to have won the ESU competition following Patricia Evangelista in 2004. Evangelista is now a columnist and TV host.

During the question and answer portion following each of the delegates’ speeches, Dapul was asked about his stand on the morality of genetic research particularly stem cell.

He replied: “I believe that the challenges that morality presents is a bit dubious depending on your point of view. For example, what is better to not conduct stem cell research which would save lives or to conduct stem cell research which can cure cancer, Parkinson’s and many other diseases.”

“Controversy is caused by differing opinions it depends on where those opinions can meet in the middle because there is such a thing as ethical research. And this research can be pursued if ethics dictates that other types of research should not be pursued,” he added.

Dapul is set to formally receive his award on November at the Buckingham Palace.

Positive News Media

A mobile teacher from Quezon Boulevard here was chosen as the 2007 National Awardee in the Search for Outstanding Volunteers.

Dr. Edwin Ferrer received a medal from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in a ceremony at the Edsa Shangrila in Mandaluyong City last December. Dr. Ferrer presented his medal to San Carlos City Mayor Julier Resuello on January 10, 2008 at the latter’s office.

Ferrer received a Presidential Award on Volunteerism in recognition of his outstanding work in championing the cause of the vulnerable sectors of society through his initiatives in the continued education and rehabilitation of inmates and their families.

He was also cited for his contribution to the functional literacy for adults, out-school-youth and senior citizens by providing them support to gain self-confidence, dignity, and opportunity for social integration.

At the same time, the Department of Education (DepEd) commended Ferrer, who is a mobile teacher under the Bureau of Alternative Learning Systems (BALS).

In the awards ceremony, President Arroyo stressed that “we need more teachers like Dr. Edwin Ferrer who is a ‘virtually heroes’, crossing mountains and rivers just to provide basic education to out-of-school youth and adults who still want to learn.”

Recognizing the productive efforts of mobile teachers, Mrs. Arroyo cited that the budget for alternative learning has been increased three times from Php 76 million in 2006 to Php 230 million in 2007.

This budget increase enabled DepEd to hire 300 more mobile teachers, who teach in community learning centers such as a barangay hall, chapel, factory, reading center, or a house.

Ferrer was chosen as the National Awardee from among 38 nominees from both public and private organizations.

He has been a mobile teacher for eight years in 86 barangays within Pangasinan, thus, raising the level of literacy in these barangays.

Mobile teachers teach in areas with high illiteracy rate, a huge population of out-of-school youth, and where education is hampered by insurgency.

At present there are 1,381 mobile teachers all over the country.

The search for outstanding volunteers is spearheaded by the Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency.

Presidential Proclamation No. 55 mandates the celebration of National Volunteer Month every December.

In order to bolster this Presidential Proclamation, President Arroyo also ratified Republic Act 9418, or the Volunteer Act of 2007, institutionalizing volunteerism as one of the strategies for national development. (PNA)

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines-A Filipino taking up his doctoral degree in the United Kingdom received a special award from an international competition which celebrates the achievements of international students and their contributions to the UK.

The Department of Foreign Affairs reported the accomplishment of Dr. Don Eliseo Lucero-Prisno III, a third-year PhD student at the School of Social Sciences of Cardiff University in Wales.

Prisno received a “Highly Commended” award from the SHINE 2008 International Student Award from the British Council, the UK’s international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations.

“I am extremely happy with the award as I have made a very good name for Cardiff University and my country, the Philippines,” Prisno said.

According to the DFA, Prisno joined the contest for people to understand the plight of populations in poverty and marginalized conditions, and what he does to help the less fortunate. He is the first Filipino to win the award.

Eligible international students had to write a letter narrating how the UK has excited or challenged them.

“It’s easy to enter. Simply write us a letter telling us all about your time in the UK and how the UK has challenged and excited you. Our panel of judges – other students, education professionals and British Council colleagues – will choose the best letters to become shining examples of UKlife for future international students,” read in the competitions’ website.

Prisno, who hails from Tacloban City, is a medical doctor with special interest in global health and international health policy.

He earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology (cum laude) degree and Doctor of Medicine from the University of the Philippines.

Prisno has worked in the field of international health and health research and policy in the Philippines, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, and Brazil under the European Union, World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization.

His PhD research looks at the sexual risk taking behavior of merchant seafarers in the context of AIDS.

“I have been working mostly in the area of health and welfare, poverty and HIV/AIDS. My research is looking at the vulnerability of seafarers to HIV/AIDS,” he explained.