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Filipino students at M.I.T. celebrate Filipino entrepreneurial spirit

PHILIPPINE CONSULATE GENERAL - NEWS RELEASE
12 December 2005

Cambridge, MASSACHUSETTS --- Filipino students comprising the Filipino Students Association (FSA) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) hosted a symposium on Thursday, December 8, to recognize and celebrate the Filipino entrepreneurial spirit. The symposium was held at the Tang Auditorium inside the sprawling MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hosted by the FSA with the support of MIT’s Special Program for Urban and regional Studies (SPURS), the symposium featured two MIT Filipino scholars who have made pioneering works that either represented the Filipino’s innate and socially transformative entrepreneurial spirit or challenged the Filipino to unlock his potential for entrepreneurship. The first of these two scholars was Mr. Illac Diaz, a 2005-2006 MIT Humphrey Fellow and the first recipient of the Philippines’ Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) for social entrepreneurship award. Illac shared his story of how five years ago, without the help of government or donor agencies, he opened a low-cost lodging somewhere in the Manila port area for Filipino seamen and transients from the provinces. Calling it “Pier One Center,” Illac’s project has grown from a 40-bed concern to the largest migrant shelter of its kind in the Philippines. For only one dollar ($1.00) a night or its equivalent in Philippine pesos, seamen who are in between jobs and transients could spend the night at the Center complete with clean water, clean bed sheets, and a safe environment. Those who could not afford the minimal fee could work or pay it off by volunteering in the Center’s various other projects such as building water stations for residents and neighboring communities. Illac said he thought of the project “because it bothered me that many Filipino seamen who are contributing a lot to the Philippines through their remittances, and transients from the provinces who come to Manila looking for jobs have to spend the night in unsafe and unsanitary conditions; these people obviously deserved better treatment.” Illac added that his business plan was not strictly molded from the traditional “business-for-profit” formula but rather “a combination of this formula and social responsibility.” Now in the MIT SPURS/Humphrey program, Illac is formulating the next big scalable solutions for homelessness in the rural areas of the country.

The next scholar/speaker was Neil Ruiz, a Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Department of Political Science, and lead organizer of a team of Filipinos at MIT that founded the Philippine Emerging Startups Open (PESO). PESO was a technology and innovation-oriented business plan competition in the Philippines that uses the MIT $50K model to build a collaborative entrepreneurial environment that cultivates new, high value, globally-competitive companies that not only create jobs, but also incentives for Filipino professionals to remain in the country. With the help of a fellowship and grant from MIT Public Service Center, Neil and company organized the first Philippine PESO Challenge in the Philippines this year, which attracted the support of major constituencies from academic, business, industry, nonprofit and government sectors. In his presentation, Neil said that PESO allowed his group to: Connect: with people across academia, industry and government as well as experienced mentors both here and abroad; Create: teams with the right mix of skills who will be trained to write, refine, and pitch strong business plans to industry experts and venture capitalists; and Catalyze: the building of technology- and innovation-based businesses by providing support from the PESO network even after the competition was over. Neil added that over 70 teams responded to the challenge. The grand prize went to a company called “Enhanced Solo.” Enhanced Solo developed a ringspot virus-resistant solo papaya seedling that delayed ripening and enhanced the taste and firmness of the fruit. Neil said “the development of the solo papaya seedlings could lead to the rehabilitation of the various papaya growing areas in the Philippines and increased income to papaya growers across the country.” Neil concluded that “the PESO challenge showed that many Filipinos possess an innate sense of entrepreneurship and are just waiting for the right motivation and incentive to unleash it.”

Consul Edgar Badajos, who attended the symposium on behalf of the Philippine Consulate General in New York, congratulated the Filipino Students Association at MIT for providing a “social ground for all MIT individuals interested in Filipino culture and society.” He commended Illac Diaz and Neil Ruiz for their pioneering works in Filipino entrepreneurship. He specifically lauded the two gentlemen for showing some of the ways by which Filipino scholars and overseas Filipinos could help the average Filipino develop his entrepreneurial spirit. He challenged all the Filipino students at MIT to help in educating their countrymen on the importance of entrepreneurship.