Negros Occidental Rep. Jules Ledesma made an “˜apparition’ at the House of Representatives early this week after being absent for almost the entire 14th Congress. Ledesma who snubbed President Noynoy Aquino’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) last month, vowed to be “˜more visible’ this Congress.
Ledesma’s absenteeism drew flak from critics but the lawmaker said he is working even if he is not attending sessions. He added that he is willing to comply if given assignments. His latest task is the chairmanship of the House Committee on Science and Technology.
As head of the committee, Ledesma is obliged to call and preside over meetings and review measures directly relating to science and technology including scientific and technological research and development, technology transfer, science and technology education.
Meanwhile, at the Senate, the Congressional Commission on Science and Technology and Engineering (COMSTE) is chaired by Senator Edgardo Angara.
Angara is pushing for the Technology Transfer bill which grants Filipino researchers autonomy, as it vests the ownership of intellectual property rights to research institutions that conducted research funded in part or in full by government, and authorizes them to use income from their research to conduct more R&D of its choice.
Aside from this, Angara proposed a seed fund for cutting-edge research, a leapfrog strategy dubbed as “œFast-Track to Innovation.” The plan is to fund a local research team to pursue cutting edge R&D endeavors with willing Filipino scientists based abroad as the principal investigators of the projects.