DBP eyes added support to local inventors

State-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is looking at extending financial grants to three outstanding local inventors who recently won a national competition for the most promising solutions and technologies for critical sectors of the economy, a top official said.

DBP President and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel G. Herbosa said the Bank may provide additional support to the winners of the local competition with the Filipino Inventors Society (FIS) dubbed as “The Inventor’s Pitch,” to facilitate the commercialization and mass production of their products and inventions.

“We are looking to extend financial grants that may be utilized at the inventors’ disposal for the production and commercialization of their outstanding and deserving innovations,” Herbosa said.

DBP is the sixth largest bank in the country in terms of assets and provides credit support to four strategic sectors of the economy – infrastructure and logistics; micro, small and medium enterprises; the environment; and social services and community development.

FIS is a non-government organization of Filipino inventors who hold patents to their works and innovations in the Philippines and overseas. Its membership has widened to include professionals and entrepreneurs who espouse the organization’s cause to develop Philippine indigenous technology and innovations.

Herbosa said the winners of the competition were Rodrigo Duque for his “Portable Unihoused Water Purification and Sterilization Apparatus”, Justino Arboleda for his “Method of Producing Coco Board and Product thereof for Various Housing and Carpentry Works”, and William Chua for his “ManilaBlock: an interlocking building block.”

He said the three were chosen from 11 finalists by a panel of judges composed of top officials from the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry, National Economic Development Authority, Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, and DBP, with each receiving a cash prize of P300,000.

“DBP hopes that this competition would help raise the level of public awareness on the passion and dedication of our brilliant inventors,” Herbosa said.

DBP Development Advocacy Committee Chair Dante V. Liban said the Bank is committed to scale up financial support to Filipino inventors whose innovative works are pivotal in improving available technologies to key sectors such as health care, environment and agriculture.

He added that DBP will continue to encourage the development of relevant technologies and meaningful solutions to local problems, through its various loan programs and socio-civic undertakings.

“Our goal is to showcase not only the ingenuity of our Filipino inventors but also to catalyze national development, especially in the most crucial yet vulnerable sectors of our economy,” Liban said.

In 2021, DBP partnered with FIS to consolidate support for the development of viable local projects and indigenous technologies while enabling the Bank to advance the provisions of Republic Act No. 7459, or the “Investors and Invention Incentives Act of the Philippines,” which mandates state banks to provide financial assistance to Filipino inventors.