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The National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP), Departments of Science and Technology (DOST), Agriculture (DA), Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and Health (DOH) proudly announce the official launching of the BCH Pilipinas: The Philippine Biosafety Clearing House (BCH), on 7 August 2008.

The establishment of the BCH Pilipinas by the Philippines is in compliance to Article 20, paragraph 1 of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, being a Party to the Protocol. The objectives of the BCH are to: (a) facilitate the exchange of scientific, technical, environmental and legal information on, and experience with, Living Modified Organisms (LMOs), and (b) assist Parties to implement the Protocol, taking into account the special needs of developing country Parties. The BCH will serve as a “one-stop-shop” where biosafety-related information of the country, such laws and regulations, risk assessment on approved LMOs for food, feed and processing, national report, competent national authorities on LMOs, and national contacts among other information can be accessed.

The setting up of the BCH Pilipinas was carried out with the aid of the UNEP-GEF Project for Effective Participation on the Biosafety Clearing House of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

Aside from its launching in the National Capital Region, similar activities will be held on 19 August 2008 in Cebu City and in Davao City on 21 August 2008.

http://bch.dost.gov.ph

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GMA wears naturally-dyed dress

The Philippines is ready to dress up and add colors to the fashion world with its premium Earth-friendly fiber and dye technology.

“We want to launch an aggressive and fashion forward campaign on the transformation of Philippine textiles into high fashion and world class apparels”, says Dr. Carlos C. Tomboc, director of the Philippine Textile Research Institute, an agency of the Department of Science and Technology.

That transformation was in full view on Monday when Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo showed up as keynote speaker during opening rites of the National Science and Technology Week at World Trade Center in Pasay City. She was wearing a formal dress made of ”mauve pink piña seda fabric”, designed by Anthony Legarda, an up-and-coming Fil-Am designer based in New York.

Materials used in the President’s “two- piece ensemble” is a “blend of selected very fine materials” of 50 percent piña fibers from Aklan and 50 percent silk from PTRI’s silkworm breeding center in Misamis Oriental, Tomboc disclosed. The dye used is from young coconut husk, one of 75 natural dyes sources that PTRI painstakingly developed.


“In the US, a jacket like the one that the President wore would cost $2,000 while the inner dress would be $1,000. And people would buy them,” Legarda said.
GMA wears naturally-dyed dress. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo graces the opening ceremonies of the ASEAN Science and Technology Week at the World Trade Center wearing a naturally-dyed dress developed by the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Textile Research Institute (DOST-PTRI). The dress, made of indigenous natural fabrics, is colored pink using dyes made of young coconut husks. All of the ASEAN ministers wore PTRI-developed natural fabrics colored by natural dyes during the occasion (Framelia V. Anonas/Joy Lazcano, S&T Media Service).

 

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President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will speak at the start of the National Science and Technology Week celebrations on July 7 organized by the Department of Science and Technology.

The president confirmed that S&T plays a key role in the development of the country, while developments and innovations done by DOST spur progress and open new opportunities to improve the Filipinos’ quality of living.

The NSTW and the ASEAN Science and Technology Week, which the country hosts this year will be a “great opportunity to remind the people, and keep them aware of the latest breakthroughs in the field and their implications in daily living”, she said

The event highlights the accomplishment and will feature discussions on issues and challenges facing S&T developments in the Philippines.

It starts on July 7 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. Other activities include the annual Science and Technology Fair that will showcase technologies that DOST developed or supported with applications that meet domestic industrial and consumer needs.

DOST, which is also celebrating its 50th anniversary hosts the 8th ASEAN Science and Technology Week in time for the 2008 National Science and Technology Week on July 7-11 that will be held in three separate venues in Manila.

For details, parties may contact the NSTW secretariat at telephone numbers 838-1140 or 837-2071 locals 2166 and 2153 or visit the NSTW website at www.nstw.dost.gov.ph This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it (Yen Ocampo, S&T Media Service)

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In another scale of expanding globalization, the Philippines joined the international community in observing World Metrology Day last May 20, which marks the signing of the Metre Convention by 17 countries on the same date 133 years earlier.

The Metre Convention is an international treaty that created three organizations to oversee the keeping of the metric standards and gives them authority to act on world metrology related matters. It is also designed to embrace a worldwide uniformity of measurement through the use of the International System of Units.

Metrology is the science of measurements that embraces both experimental and theoretical measurements and determinations at any level of uncertainty in any field of science and technology.

A current example of its usefulness is the construction of the European Airbus A380, parts of which are made in France, Germany, Spain, and UK and then transported to France for assembly.

Such international commercial collaboration and uniform product quality standards would be difficult without accurate validated dimensional measurements between the various national metrology institutes and laboratories of the countries involved.

The Metre Convention lists 51 member-states as of January 2008 along with 26 associate states and economies of the General Conference. The Philippines is an associate state of the convention. (Yen Ocampo, S&T Media Service)