ChE 141.

Reflection paper on the Investments Priorities Plan 2011 Reading the Investments Priorities Plan 2011 was a first time for me. Actually, I already expected that the fields that mostly concern the government have something to do with energy. Under the list of Preferred Activities, I did not expect shipbuilding to be one of the priorities. I understand very well that the country is an archipelago, thereby it would be very advantageous to maximize fields related to the bodies of water the Philippines has, yet, I think there are certain areas which would need more consideration such as the manufacturing sector (making more skilled workers to be compensated accordingly) and the health and safety services and facilities (since most Filipinos still have difficulty in accessing the services of even the public hospitals.) Seeing that energy and green projects are two of the list of preferred activities, I felt the urge to make our thesis and plant design proposals feasible projects, since both are concerned with producing energy/fuel based on readily available raw materials such as waste plastics and water. Who knows, our group might be the first to come up with higher hydrogen production using novel catalysts? The possibilities under the energy field and green projects are endless, considering that the Philippines is now concerned on the two areas. It is a good thing that the government now focuses on ways to lessen the damage to the environment, this would be a plausible stepping stone towards establishing a greener Philippines. However, since energy is one of the main priorities also, I hope that a solution could be done to decrease the price of electricity usage especially in Metro Manila, since this is one of the major problems of many households. Compared to other countries, our electricity costs are a mile higher than them, which in turn increases the costs of most products. Now that the Philippines is open to using more sources of renewable energy, I am really looking forward to see smile in the face of my dad whenever he receives the electric bill. What is more surprising in the Investments Priorities Plan is the inclusion of the field of Research and Development under the Preferred Activities list. It is very much convincing having read that, for the government is now encouraging innovations that would aid in the betterment in the lives of Filipinos, however, seeing the present situation in the university, which is considered to be the top performing university in the Philippines, I cannot help but to raise my eyebrows and say Eh?. Considering the Chemical Engineering Laboratory alone, there are more equipment needed in order to facilitate an ideal environment for research. If the government is concerned on producing more researches and inventions, it must first focus on the improvement of the university laboratories and testing centres. This must be a main priority in terms of Research and Development, so as to encourage more innovators to pursue on experimentations regarding their creative ideas. After having read the whole of the document, the realization of how important a chemical engineers role to the society has reached me. To be a chemical engineer is to be the IT person in the community, since as determined by the government, most of the priorities for investment lie in the chemical engineering discipline and track. Surely, a chemical engineer can never go jobless, and will always have a pertinent role towards the development of the country.