Philippines: Disease and Medical Technology

By: Joseph Seabra

The Philippines as mentioned before is a developing nation and is experiencing large amounts of technological and infrastructural growth, but the country is also a small island nation that is in a subtropical climate perfect for the culmination of diseases and illnesses. The country of the Philippines has experienced multiple disease outbreaks with the country having back to back outbreaks with the measles and dengue. In 2019 the country had a reported 42,000 cases of measles with 560 deaths, which was then immediately followed by “350,000 cases of dengue” which had 1,300 related deaths (Santos, 2019). According to the website DW Made for Minds the amount of Filipino people getting vaccinations has decreased from “88% in 2013” to only “70% in 2018”, due to a “Dengue vaccine scare in 2017” (Santos, 2019). This lack of vaccinations within the country could be a reason as to why the country has experienced multiple disease outbreaks. Though if the government of the Philippines was able to introduce technologies that could increase vaccinations the country would not have this issue.

There are currently multiple technologies being developed to increase the amount of people who receive and understand vaccines, though one technology that I can see being  implemented in the Philippines the most effectively is SMS Text messages to citizens phones about potential illnesses present in their area. According to the website Vaccines Today the implementation of this technology would not be a solution to the spread of diseases within an area. Though it would allow for people to become aware of potential issues and “ ‘nudge’ people to think about vaccination or point them towards their nearest clinic.” (Finnegan, 2018). The reason that the SMS Text message platform is an efficient way to help potentially increase the amount of vaccines in the Philippines is due to most Filipino people spending large amounts of time on their phones. As mentioned before the average Filipino spends around “3 hours and 57 minutes a day on social media sites, mainly on Facebook” which means it would be more likely that people would see the message (Camus, 2018).

The use of SMS text messaging as a technology that could increase the number of vaccines within the Philippines and stop the spread of diseases within the country is quite a simple but very effective tool that should be utilized by the government of the Philippines.

(Dantes, 2014)

 The Philippines is a nation that is trying to rapidly develop its infrastructure, and if the country can adopt this method to better inform its citizens it could better market itself to the rest of the world. The Country relies heavily on tourism for the growth of its infrastructure and technology, and therefore it must maintain an environment free of disease and sickness.

Philippines: Educational Technology

By: Joseph Seabra
The Philippines is a nation that is trying to rapidly develop itself after its separation from the United States as a territory, and as mentioned before the education system of the Philippines is quite like that of the United States. Though it can be said that there is still a gap between the use of education along with technology to increase student learning within the Philippines. According to the news source the Manila Times “Only 20 percent of the country’s 70 leading companies across all sectors were inclined to hire senior high graduates, according to a study by the Philippine Business for Education (PBED)” (Lugutu, 2018). Though this cannot be directly attributed to a lack of technology within the educational sector, it can be assumed that with an increased usage of new technology Filipino students would graduate prepared for a more technologically intense workload.

(Directo, 2018)

One major technology that is allowing for Filipino student to have increased access to the internet and new technologies is the use of mobile phones as a teaching aid. As mentioned in previous papers people in the Philippines spend an increased amount of time accessing the internet using their smartphones, and therefore they would be able to easily use their phones for accessing educational materials. The program Text2Teach which was launched in the Philippines allows for students to access informational videos and educational materials in multiple subject areas from cell phones that have network connectivity (Bernad, 2018). According to the online magazine UPGRADE the program has been successful since its implementation, creating a drop in the dropout rate in “179 schools from five provinces” (Bernad, 2018). The only major problem that can be seen with the implementation of this educational technology is that wireless access to the internet is extremally slow within many parts of the Philippines. In the online news source, the PhiStar it was reported that “the Philippines has the lowest average internet connection speed in the world and among Asia-Pacific countries with 4.5 Mbps” (Adel, 2017). Looking forward the government of the Philippines should invest into technologies that would allow for better wireless internet access within Filipino schools. If the country wants to increase its educational technologies and develop the countries educational sector, then an investment must be made into the Wi-Fi in the countries educational areas. It can be assumed that the government of the Philippines will focus more on mobile technology instead of increasing the amount of wireless internet access within the educational sector as it would allow for an increase in knowledge of technologies while decreasing overall cost.

Philippines: Military Technology

By: Joseph Seabra

As stated, before the Philippines is a nation that has pushed for the overall growth under the leadership of its president Rodrigo Duterte and his proposed plans to expand and modernize the Philippines. Along with the country experiencing infrastructural growth and technological growth the country has also started to experience a growth the development of its military. The Filipino military currently has an estimated 305,000 enlisted individuals within its military with 125,000 of those individuals being active duty (2019). The number of vehicles that the country possesses is quite a small number when compared to other Southeastern Asian countries with the country only having an estimated 171 aircraft, 18 combat ready tanks, and 119 naval assets (2019). With the country having such a small military arsenal there is little doubt that with the Philippines proposed Military Modernization plan there will be a large amount of new technology transplanted within the country’s military.

    (Butlangan, 2019)

According to the website DefenseNews the Horizon 2 Modernization plan proposed by Rodrigo Dutertes administration will last for a total of 5 years with the plan beginning in 2018 and lasting till 2020 (Yeo, 2018). The extended time frame of this plan indicates that the country does not want to expand suddenly and receive outdated military technology that it already had within its arsenals. The plan has had a total of $5.6 billion USD with the division of the funds being “$890 million for the Army, $1.44 billion for the Navy and $2.61 billion for the Air Force, with the rest of the budget going to the military’s General Headquarters and the government’s arsenal.” (Yeo, 2018). With most of the funds from the Horizon 2 Modernization plans fund being directed towards the Filipino Air Force it can be assumed that the Philippines’ military will be focusing on technology center on aircraft. According to Business Inquirer in September the Filipino Airforce Invested in 15 Airbus A321neo SR under the current military modernization plan (Camus, 2019). The Airbus A321neo SR is a short-range aircraft that allows for the transport of troops and supplies to different areas easier, and with this acquisition the Philippines will now have boosted the total number of aircraft to an estimated 186. According to Business Inquirer this aircraft has a “roomier cabin, flies quieter and burns less fuel than its predecessor, the A321 Classic” (Camus, 2019).

It will be interesting to see how the Philippines continues to spend the remainder of the funds from the Horizon 2 Modernization plan, with the increase in production and development of new military technology. Though with the span of this modernization plan being over the course of five years it raises the question as to whether the Philippines will continues to have outdated military technology if they purchase different technologies over the long course of this plan. 

Philippines: Robotics

            By: Joseph Seabra

The Philippines is a country that is focusing primarily on its infrastructural growth, as it is a country that relies heavily on tourism as a source of income and employment for the nation. Due to the Philippines wanting to focus on infrastructural growth an advancement in robotics within the construction industry could greatly benefit the country. Evidence of the Philippines putting its resources into infrastructural growth is the country’s 7.6-billion-dollar investment in 2018 to help repair and replace bridges, roads, and the Metro Manila Subway (Miller, 2018). Along with this large investment in 2018 the country has also investigated multiple potential investments into the counties growth and development to increase tourism. This can be seen by the Philippine’s President Rodrigo Duterte backing the “Build, Build, Build” initiative which is estimated to “spend $180 billion to renovate and build airports, railways, roads and ports over a six-year period.” (Miller, 2018).  

If the country was to invest in robotic construction technology the Philippines would be able to save a tremendous amount of financial investment on time and labor. According to the Robotics Industries Association the construction industry “is one of the least automated industries that feature manual-intensive labor as a primary source of productivity” (Robotics Online Marketing Team, 2018). If the Philippines was to utilize robotics technology such as masonry robots, and welding robots they would be able to serve as a forefront for an under-utilized industry. One company that has researched and developed technologies for construction and has made the first commercially available masonry robot is Construction Robotics founded in 2008. The robot created by this company allows for a reduction of an estimated 50% of labor cost, along with laying around 2000 bricks in the time it takes a physical mason to lay 400 bricks (2017b)   

(theconstructionindex.co.uk, 2018)

A large problem in all infrastructural growth for a country is fitting in its expected growth within the constraints of its available labor. Due to the country geological distribution being very divided, it can be assumed that finding workers would be very difficult. This problem could be easily fixed with the implementation of robotics which would serve to autotomize task that are more routine and menial. According to ConstructionWorld.org the reduction of human interferences in construction task and infrastructural growth would mean that “manufacturing parts and materials will be much more consistent, with a higher quality” due a decrease in the amount of “human error and inconsistency” (2017a). This raises the question as to whether this would in turn take jobs away from those seeking employment in the Philippines, but what is recommended in implementing this technology into the construction industry is to have this technology work alongside those employed in construction in order half the time of the country’s current infrastructural growth.

The robotics industry within the construction industry is truly an under-utilized field that could help with time, labor, cost, and quality within the Philippines construction Industry. Now more than ever the Philippines is growing its infrastructure through increased construction and is trying to develop its nation into one that can serve as a future hub for tourism and technology. For the country to do this effectively it should implement robotics within the construction industry to truly achieve this goal and become the epicenter of growth within robotic construction and infrastructure. 

Philippines: Bitcoin in the Philippines

            By: Joseph Seabra

            Bitcoin is an internet-based cryptocurrency that was created in 2009 by an unknown individual “using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto” (Yellin, Aratari, Pagliery). Although the online currency is still in its infancy due to the upregulation of the currency, its inability for taxation, and its hold of anonymity for users the currency has faced some backlash and increased regulations. As of late countries such as “Japan, China and Australia have begun weighing regulations” (Yellin, Aratari, Pagliery).

            This currency does not require a bank in order to be held, and because of this and its large inflation in the past few years has become extremely popular around the world. Bitcoin has become increasingly popular in many of the southeastern Asian countries and has had a large impact in the Philippines. This spread of bitcoin in the Philippines is evident with every 7-Eleven convenience station in the Philippines selling bitcoin. According to an article by Cointelegraph on September 18th, 2019 the company ABRA made a partnership with multiple retail chains that “will bring crypto to 6,000 retail outlets across the Philippines, including all 7-Eleven stores.” (Zmudzinski, 2019). It is evident that a move towards cryptocurrency such as bitcoin is being pushed within the Philippines though it would be interesting to see its success given the countries geographical and financial division.

    Bitcoin Philippines (zervoulakos, 2016)

             A large financial barrier to the spread of Bitcoin across the Philippines is that the average salary of someone living in the Philippines is approximately 10,500 PHP (2019). This conversion into United States currency is the equivalent of only around $202.00 USD. According to the Bitcoin Website where cryptocurrency can be purchased and traded, one Bitcoin is equivalent to 433397.37 PHP (2019). This average monthly income is extremely low when considering the current price of Bitcoin, and it can be assumed that there will be a minimal amount of interested people who invest into this cryptocurrency. When these numbers are compared the drastic difference between monthly income in the Philippines and the cost for one Bitcoin becomes evident. If a Filipino worker making the countries average monthly income wanted to purchase one Bitcoin, it would take them just under three years to purchase one assuming they spend none of that money throughout those 3 years. Therefore, it can be determined that given the large financial barrier for entering the Bitcoin market, this currency will not become commonly used or have a large user base in the Philippines. I do not want these numbers to discourage the idea that the Philippines is still a country that is growing both in its infrastructure and technology. Throughout the world there has a been a slow entry into the use of the cryptocurrency, with many potential investors facing a large financial barrier of entry. Even in Countries such as the United States which has a mean income per capita of $48,150 many people are not investing in the online currency would currently cost just under a quarter of a year’s wage (Amadeo, 2019).