- One of the DIWATA-1 engineers decried the mistreatment they received from the government
- They were sent to Japan as “students” but were given a different workload
- They have appealed to the DOST but have not received any word yet
One of the scientists who worked on the very first microsatellite of the Philippines called DIWATA-1 decried the “empty promises” and mistreatment he and his colleagues received from the government, particularly the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
On his Facebook post, Paolo Espiritu, one of the scientists sent to Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan to work on the microsatellite, recounted how they were mistreated by the government.
“We are being used as tools in their projects, no more value than the science equipment and apparatus,” he said.
He also shared the confusion as to their exact status under the microsatellite project, as they were recruited fresh out of college to build the microsatellite without pay, and with a seven-year “return service” bond under the guise of a “scholarship” in Japan.
“It all started in 2014, when we were invited to work on the project. We have just finished our engineering degrees then, and naturally we were all excited to build the Philippines’ first microsatellite. But upon receiving the contracts, all of us were confused as to exactly what our involvement in the project is. All the contract entailed was for us to receive a scholarship to study Aerospace Engineering in exchange for years of return service. Of course to build the satellite, we would have to study the technology behind it, and so we expected that the scholarship was a given part of the project. But according to the contract, that was it. Nothing more followed. According to the contract, we are to build the satellite without pay, with 4 years of return service. On paper, we were just students. On paper, we weren’t part of the project. On paper, we were not engineers.”
While they agreed to take part in the project despite the confusion, the team flew to Japan to fulfill their mission, with assurances made by the Department that they “take it in good faith, that you will be taken care of.”
However, two years since they began the project, and despite several appeals to DOST, the scientists have not heard about their case yet. They noted that despite being officially “students” on paper, their workload and their current arrangement appeared otherwise.
In essence, the engineers were sent to work on the microsatellite without proper pay and compensation:
“They call us ‘students’, yet normal students go in at 9am, and leave at 5pm. Normal students attend class all the time. Normal students are almost finished on their individual thesis projects. Normal students have personal time on the weekends. Normal students enjoy holidays. But no. We are not just students. We go in at 9am, and leave at 1am. Most of the days, we have no choice but to skip our classes to work on the microsatellite. We have no chance to work on our thesis projects. We go to the lab on Saturdays. We go to the lab on Sundays. We go to the lab on holidays. We go to the lab during Christmas. So no. We are not just students.”
Espiritu also revealed how, on the other hand, DOST officials who did not work directly on the microsatellite, but were sent to Japan to attend seminars and other events, had full salaries and had their travel fees covered.
“It just really baffles me, how DOST can afford all these visits, the airfare, the accommodation, and the fancy food, but when it comes to the engineers, merely staying in Japan to work on the microsatellite is taken against them, with the 7 year service bond (3 more added to the original 4). This PHL-MICROSAT project is a billion-peso project, and despite being an engineering project, the engineers aren’t included in the project.”
DIWATA-1 is the country’s first satellite launched on March 23. It is expected to collect images of the Philippines from space, to be used for weather forecast, disaster risk reduction and management, environmental management, and security.
Another microsatellite is expected to be sent to space by 2017.
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