The City Council is committed to give more support for Davaoeño inventors.
“We’ve been talking to our Davao inventors lately and even before, you can see their frustrations because the support from the government is not enough. They will start inventing something but eventually they stop because, of course, they also need a stand-up capital,” Councilor Pilar Braga said.
“They need a lot of support, especially, financial,” she added.
While some investors are given incentives, their works, inventions, and discoveries are oftentimes not accredited.
“This time, President Rodrigo Duterte just signed two laws. I think it was just last week, or two weeks ago. The Republic Act 11337 or the Innovation Start-up Act, and the Republic Act 11293 or the Philippine Innovation Act. These laws have put something like three billion funds to help our innovators, scientists and our inventors,” she said.
She also said that these laws will provide the inventors access to funds to give justice and motivation to their inventions.
“So this law is a very welcome because this will give life and this will inspire our scientists, our inventors because, as they said, the support they receive before were not enough,” she added.
On the part of the City Council, she said they are studying measures to enhance the national laws to support the Davao inventors and “strengthen their income.”
One of the initiatives is a local hub for local inventors.
“They (inventors) are saying that they also need a center where they can store up their works because there are others who are very technical that they need additional equipment, it is almost like a laboratory for our investors. We are still working on that for our inventors,” she said.
A local hub is not a new concept for Davao inventors. As early as 2013, the Davao Inventors Association has been pushing for an “idea hatchery” that will help foster innovation, particularly among fresh graduates.
The idea hatchery hopes to create value-adding products using raw materials that can be sourced out locally such as coconut, activated carbon, and coco coir.
In August this year, Louie Roma, an AB Political Science graduate of the University of Mindanao, topped the Kadayawan Innovation Camp-Lumloman sa Dabaw 2019 for his vertical farming project. Dubbed “Verde,” the vertical farming technique harnesses the power of the sun, along with simple mechanics, to potentially grow a vegetable garden in very limited spaces.
