Stories of Hope and Resilience: Celebrating the Gawad Alunig x Dalumat Champions

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Innovation stories on a mechanical engineering invention and a sustainable tree-planting method reigned supreme in this year’s Gawad Alunig x Dalumat campaign.  The storytellers behind these narratives were hailed as the winners by the Technology Application and Promotion Institute (DOST-TAPI) under the Department of Science and Technology.

Creative Blocks: A Narrative on Perseverance

The Gawad Alunig grand champion, Davao’s Creative Blocks, crafted a moving video advertisement on Lumad 6.0, an innovation developed under the University of Mindanao’s (UM) Mechanical Engineering program. Creative Blocks’ audio-visual piece, Taghoy, was inspired by the vehicle’s aerodynamic design for fuel efficiency. Their winning entry used the wind as a metaphor for resilience amid adversity, overcoming challenges, and adapting to one’s circumstances.

Natalie Rose Pimentel of Creative Blocks explained that their submission was derived from the Visayan word Taghoy, which means calling the wind. She shared that their team interpreted calling the wind as a sign of perseverance. “When you persevere, you call the wind. Our story revolved around the journey from resisting to finally embracing and calling the wind. It’s also a message to other creators to persist in achieving their goals.”

Composed of multimedia students, Creative Blocks wanted their victory to inspire other students and creatives to join national campaigns like GAxD. “It’s important to keep on creating, crafting, and practicing one’s skills. Be an artist with a purpose,” Pimentel explained.

Bihasaya: A Story of Hope and Innovation

Meanwhile, the Gawad Dalumat victors, Bihasaya of Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, focused on sustainable tree-planting with the ingenious usage of the humble ipil-ipil plant. The team’s winning photo essay, I-POT of Tomorrow, showcased how fallen ipil-ipil sheaths can be fashioned into pots, proving that innovation can also be gentle. The entry emphasized that hope can be found everywhere, even amid the world’s growing plastic pollution issue.

The Bihasaya team hails from the Science and Technology Education Center–Senior High School (STEC-SHS) Mantalaan in Davao. STEC-SHS has been a powerhouse in the GAxD campaign, with their students’ entries reaching the finals round for the past three years. However, Bihasaya is the first STEC-SHS team to win the coveted Gawad Dalumat grand champion spot.

Bihasaya credits their win to their alma mater because STEC-SHS provides an environment that encourages innovation. “We joined the GAxD campaign to promote our school, which focuses on innovation. We come from an institution filled with students proud of creating new things,” Jannah Pauline B. Jimenez of Bihasaya said.

Jimenez then encouraged other students to join campaigns like GAxD to showcase their talent and skills. “Through our win, we hope to inspire others to create more solutions to battle issues like plastic pollution,” she mused.

GAxD: A Nationwide Search for Champions of Innovation

The campaign received nearly 200 video and photo essay entries from 15 regions — underscoring GAxD’s reach as a truly nationwide endeavor. In fact, the majority of the campaign’s finalists came from Mindanao, displaying the region’s talent in highlighting Filipino ingenuity.

Gawad Alunig Head Judge, Ken Lerona, remarked how the diversity of entries delighted the campaign’s panel of judges. “We were impressed by the video and photo essays we deliberated on because we saw that dozens of Pinoys were passionate about giving community innovators a platform to shine,” Lerona said.

The GAxD winning entries showcased how Filipinos are creative geniuses when it comes to promoting local innovations. Aside from promoting Pinoy ingenuity on the national level, the campaign also gives these featured innovations a chance to receive support from DOST-TAPI’s ongoing programs.

For more information about the GAxD campaign, please visit the DOST-TAPI website (TAPI.DOST.gov.ph) and follow the DOST-TAPI Facebook page.