Last week, IPOPHL capped the Western Visayas Innovative Startup Fest 2024 — which showcased many emerging technologies in the region — with an Intellectual Property (IP) Convention in Iloilo. Here, over a hundred participants gathered to learn more about the experiences of our Innovation and Technology Support Offices, as well as to witness our historic launch of the IP Regional Development Plan.

A day before the convention, dozens of secondary students and school advisers learned about IP through creative and challenging activities brought by our YIPA (Young IP Advocates) Treks Program.

All the energy that Western Visayas brought to IPOPHL’s two-day visit to Iloilo proved to us that innovation is very much alive in that part of the country. And this gives us much hope.

Today, I came home from the “City of Love” with another story of hope. This one unfolded in the town of Miagao in Iloilo.

About 200 years ago, when local ports were opened to international trade, Iloilo province witnessed a commercial boost in its handloom weaving tradition called hablon. In Hiligaynon, the word means “habol” or to weave. So when hablon weaved its way to global popularity, no town in Iloilo saw greater prosperity and life and color than Miagao. But its fame didn’t last forever. Textiles from other countries eventually gained headway with more competitive materials and prices. When the sugarcane industry emerged, toppling weaving in the province, Miagao had the biggest downfall.

In the next decades, hablon would be gradually forgotten. The tradition would only come up when one talked about Miagao’s golden past.

Fast forward to the 1980s — the global demand for specialty fashion materials gave hope for hablon’s comeback.

Over the next years, the government, the academe and the private sector will be working closely to revive the tradition, tapping into the power of market research and development to find the most cost-effective techniques and materials and create more intricate and commercial designs. The town will find a spark of hope, with each loom donated and invested in Miagao and nearby towns. The women of Iloilo, once the powerful force that saved the industry, will bring back the textile industry’s spotlight on the runway which it deserves.

When we talk about innovation, we might be used to imagining it in the context of modern computers, electronics and software that can draft an entire research paper. But the stories of Iloilo’s hablon and its revival give us a different view, telling us that innovation can build on age-old practices and culture, and that innovation and IP can be sources of hope in preserving the very fabric of belief systems, talents and virtues that make up a community.

So that is my story of hope and also of innovation. You might be wondering how both elements can intertwine beautifully to create this story of triumph. The answer is that they are one and the same.

You see, while the return of hablon felt like an impossible feat, IP and innovation redefined our horizons to show the possibilities ahead. So a story about innovation is always a story about hope.

All the energy that Western Visayas brought to IPOPHL’s two-day visit to Iloilo proved to us that innovation is very much alive in that part of the country. And this gives us much hope.

Another story of hope that made headlines last week was the Philippines’ three-rung climb in the Global Innovation Index (GII) to land 53rd, thanks to the Marcos administration’s national agenda that is centered on innovation.

The GII report also showed the country’s exceptional rise in university-industry partnerships. Our Innovation and Technology Support Office program, where we capacitate ITSO universities and colleges to protect and commercialize their IP assets, could have very well contributed in this area.

Despite these gains, globally felt challenges lie ahead: a decline in venture capital investments, Patent Cooperation Treaty filings and scientific publications. But I am hopeful that the innovation policies President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has put in place will bear more fruits in the years ahead.

By then, you should hear more stories of hope from this author.