NOTE: This story was first published in The Bohol Chronicle’s Sunday print edition.

Central Visayas may have a second campus of the Philippine Science High School (PSHS) System soon.

This after Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado of Bohol’s 2nd District bared that his committee has approved the proposal on third reading, and has transmitted the documents to the plenary – for taking up following the Lenten break.

Aumentado chairs the House Committee on Science and Technology. He said it is high time that the Ubay National Science High School in barangay Fatima be part of the PSHS System in upgrade its curriculum and teaching methodologies to the latter’s standard.

The solon said this will ensure that graduates are ready especially for the Engineering and Science Education Program in college. The move is also preparatory to the proposal of establishing two PSHS campuses per region.

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has visited Ubay NSHS to check what remaining apparatus, facilities and amenities are lacking, and the curriculum – for upgrading. Iy has also visited the town itself to check against the guidelines the requirements for it to qualify as a science city.

The UNSHS was established in 1996 by a law authored and sponsored by the solon’s namesake father and immediate congressional predecessor, former governor and congressman Erico Boyles Aumentado who hails from Ubay. The senior Aumentado also started the studies to upgrade the town into a science city.

Filipino scientists, he observed, are naturally innovative, ingenious and persevering. More often than not, he lamented, they succeed in their endeavors in other countries where they are better supported academically and financially.

In a separate move, Aumentado developed a balik-scientist program aimed at stopping the Philippine brain drain.

Ubay prides itself in producing a qualifier for the doctorate program in Applied Physics at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City. (June Blanco)